


My Life, No Alter Ego

by Syaleo



Series: New Life New Alter Ego [3]
Category: Danny Phantom, Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-07
Updated: 2020-08-02
Packaged: 2021-02-26 07:07:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 16
Words: 55,599
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21699721
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Syaleo/pseuds/Syaleo
Summary: Kaetlyn and her friends find a way to easily hop between Paris, France, and Amity Park. This leads to many new relationships and adventures that aren't always the best for Paris' American hero, Lune.(This is part 3! Check out the first two parts "New Life, New Alter Ego" and "Old Life, Same Alter Ego")
Relationships: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Original Female Character/Original Male Character
Series: New Life New Alter Ego [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1358602
Comments: 2
Kudos: 7





	1. Wasted Time

A cloaked figure approached the magician. The dark of night hid their face with only a bag of coin in their hands.

The magician looked up from the ground, surrounded by magical objects for sale. The figure gave them a bag of gold and they took it.

"You will find a temple where boxes of magical jewelry are kept. It is a two days walk that way."

The figure followed the magician's finger in the direction of the palace. It's sandstone and painted walls towered above the rest of the city. They turned back to the magician, nodded, then turned around and walked away.

"Wait! I'd advise you to not take both the jewelry creation and destruction. It is too much power for one human." The magician reached out with their hand as if to pull them back.

The figure looked back and stared at the magician. When she didn't continue, they returned to wherever they called home.

* * *

The sun had begun to set and the deep blues of light seeped into the sky. She's been pacing across her room so much it had created dips on the floor with her footprints. She had no time to watch the stars burn to life in the sky or wave goodbye to the sun as it hid behind the horizon of sand. Octavian could attack while she sleeps, or even now. No one could determine when his forces would arrive, but she was sure they would.

She kept pacing. She passed the foot of her bed for the 400th time, then turning back past the hieroglyphs on her walls for the 401st time. The tapestry, the gowns, the bed, the gowns, the tapestry, the hieroglyphs, the table, gowns, bed, window, bed, gowns, tapestry. Back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. Waiting, solving, anticipating, fearing, waiting, moving, thinking. Thinking? Planning. It's too bright, not bright enough. They'll see you in the moonlight, but there's less time with each step. You can wait. No, time is running out.

The large set of doors creaked open with a man walking through, making her forget about her worries for a moment.

"Is it not a good time to come in? I wanted to rest for the night."

_Another risk._

"It is fine. I am only anxious."

The man walked towards her as he reassured her, "We have a whole army defending Egypt. Octavian is bringing many, but some soldiers would have to stay behind."

"Numbers aren't what determines a win, Antony."

He smiled, "Perhaps, but it does increase the chances of one. I will sleep early so I can rise earlier if that will help you relax."

_No!_

"Yes… But I might wake up even earlier." She looked into his loving eyes. She could see his worries for her and her well-being. His grip on her hands tightened with fear. Only she could tell when Antony felt anything but brave and powerful. It's how a soldier must always be; And a king.

Antony softly sighed, then said, "Very well, but please don't leave the palace's walls. It is a stressful time for both of us."

There were many better words to replace "stressful", but She had too many reasons to worry about correcting him.

"I'll stay up a little longer." She told him, turning away and staring out the window. The sun still hadn't fallen asleep, and she would watch it until it did.

* * *

The cloaked figure rode their horse in the direction the magician had given them. She had said a two days walk, but they would push for a night's gallop. Life had given the figure no time but instead kept taking it away.

They gripped tightly to its mane as the steed kicked up sand with its hooves. It's heavy breath expanded and retracted against the rider's calves. The palace had fallen under the horizon behind them, but the temple still could not be found. They kicked the horse hard enough to speed it up, but just like humans, animals could only run for so fast for so long.

So much time wasted on running, so much more on waiting and planning. Even breathing could take up so much time that they would die before the next day. Blinking, talking, looking, hearing. It seemed to all be so quick that it meant nothing, but then you add up the fractions of seconds they take throughout a lifetime and realize why you die feeling you've never truly accomplished anything.

The horse started to slow, its energy being left behind in the sand. Small amounts were left behind with each hoofprint being pulled from the ground. No amount of kicks or calls could force the animal to go longer. The figure had found its limit. Too limited. Not long enough. Not fast enough. Now they would have to find their own limit and break it to get to the temple.

They slid off of the horse, a simple gown seen underneath while the cloak dragged behind. Staring ahead; Still no temple to be seen. They couldn't give anymore to "Father Time". The man of greed had already stolen so much.

The figure took a knife from under their cloak and cut excess gown away until they could freely move their legs. They hid the knife once more before sprinting forwards, ignoring the dread of pain that would come from so much running.

Time passed and their legs began to ache, their throat stung, and their body felt numb. Not enough. If they could keep running, the lack of feeling would take over and the pain would cease. Time. Time. Time, time, time. The word that echoed in the figure's head for weeks would finally leave its cave once they felt creation and destruction in each hand.

Pinks and oranges bled into the dark sky. Father Time had stolen more from them. The sun started to blind the night stars and began to scare the moon away. The crescent ran away with its twinkling army. If only they could command an army with so many soldiers. The moon offered so much. That power would be great, but they only needed two.

More running, more pained gulps of air and numb legs somehow still able to work. Finally, after the sun had reached out to greet the world and chased all the stars away, a temple could be seen approaching the figure. No, they were the ones approaching. The temple stood still, teasing them, mocking them. They worked for Father Time. The rage it gave to the figure made them want to scream, yell, cry out, but they couldn't. People could still be inside. People always were. Knowing what the temple stored, someone would stay to protect it.

The figure stopped at the bottom of the stairs. The temple looked out of place and unnatural. It could be it's the only structure for miles, or it could be the lively colors painted on the strange stone.

They didn't touch the burning stone as they walked up the steps. Their skeleton had eroded. Their throat was full of sand. They didn't have the strength to continue, but they would have to find it soon before the next sunset.

The figure entered the large temple doors with silence. Inside, the walls were decorated with jade green, deep reds, and gold. Somehow the building remained a comfortable temperature despite the sun nearly melting the figure. They walked, only the ruffling of their clothes and heavy breathing being any signs of life. They tried taking normal breaths to keep quiet.

One of the walls had glass on it. A door to a case. On the other side stored dark octagonal boxes with each a shelf of their own. Locked. Simply breaking the glass would alert any guardians…

They examined the glass, noticing extravagant designs engraved on it. The blade came from underneath the cloak, tapping on the glass to find the right box. All of them were identical to the other. The same red markings, the same shape and size. The figure chose one and started carving their way through the glass, careful not to make it screech. The thin line of an uneven circle had been carved through. They tapped it hard enough to be displaced and pushed it out, catching it before it fell and shattered. They gently placed it at the bottom of the case, then took the box from its shelf.

The wood felt smooth and polished. Whoever tended to the building had skill and time.

They opened the box, a variety of jewelry set in designated spots of a circle. More popped out of the side of the box. It didn't carry the power of creation or destruction, but one power caught their eye.

The pure white bracelet had five brilliant purple jewels on it. Looking at it, they held their arm out with curiosity.

"We were not expecting any visitors." A man's voice made the figure flinch. They pulled the box closer to their chest before they could drop it.

The broad man had height along with strength that dwarfed the figure. Their clothes weren't custom to the land, the same with the building and the magic. They saw the figure as merely a thief. A greedy person wanting cash or power, but that's not what they needed. They already had it.

"Return the miraculous or face a devastating outcome." The man spoke with a deep voice. He was trying to intimidate them. Maybe for a real thief, it would have worked.

"A devastating outcome would fall upon me either way." A woman's voice escaped the cloak. They kept their back turned to the man so her face wouldn't be revealed. "The only variable would be when that outcome arrived."

The man did nothing. The woman heard no movement for a few seconds, then the man's shadow stretched over her. She tensed, moving as little as possible as she reached into her cloak.

She whipped around with a yell and swung her arm to stab the man's side, but he caught her hand. She noticed a thin green bracelet around his wrist.

The woman struggled to escape the man's grip. He let go and she fell backward, the jewelry -the miraculouses- spilling out of the box and onto the floor. She lost her knife, but she saw the white bracelet close enough to her and snatched it. She hurried to her feet and kept cautious of the distance between her and the man. He noticed the bracelet.

"Even with the powers of a miraculous, you are not skilled enough to beat me."

She slid the miraculous over her wrist anyways. A shine of pure white light emanated from it and a little white animal flew out. It had the tail of a canine and large topaz eyes. It had the ability of flight and hovered right at the eye level of the woman.

"I will warn you a second time." The man said.

She turned to the animal and ordered, "Give me your powers."

It nodded and spoke with a higher-pitched female voice, "You must activate these powers with magical words."

"Lunna." The man said. The animal turned to him. He looked at it with commanding eyes. His wishes opposed the one who wore the jewelry. It was either the protector of the miraculouses or the one who held the power to wield it.

"Lunna," The woman called, "I am the bearer of your miraculous. You listen to me and me only."

The animal was conflicted. Looking at the man, then the woman. She ended on the woman. "You must say 'Lunna, Moon Rise.'"

"Lunna, Moon Rise."

"Sass, Scales Slither!" The man's bracelet glowed green. His little flying animal did the same as Lunna. Both were pulled into their respective miraculouses and the magic began to change the wearers' clothes.

The woman's torn gown and dark cloak were replaced with extravagant white fabric. Silk decorated her outfit and silver cuffs on her ankles and wrists kept everything together. She had silver earring cuffs that were sharp and pointed, making her ears somewhat wolflike. The white and silver mask of a wolf covered her face.

The man had a green and black outfit with jewelry on his arms and around his neck decorated to imitate scales. He wore makeup that matched his outfit's colors to protect his identity. In his hands, he held a lyre.

"You will now have to be defeated by my hands. I gave you two warnings, which should have been none."

"I am your Pharoah. You will obey me and let me take the miraculous of creation and destruction."

The man hissed, "I follow no one but the Order of the Guardians!"

The woman- The pharaoh's eyebrows furrowed. She showed her teeth in an infuriated scowl. "You choose horribly!"

She charged at him, pulling a pair of hook swords that were kept on her back and swinging them at her opponent's face. He caught her swords in the strings of his lyre, blocking her attack.

She jumped back and pulled at the hilt of her swords, taking the lyre too. It flew into the air and skidded several yards across the floor.

"Second chance!" The man shouted and did something to his bracelet. A flash and history repeated.

"You choose horribly!" The pharaoh shouted

She charged at him, pulling a pair of hook swords that were kept on her back and swinging them at her opponent's face. He caught her swords in the strings of his lyre, blocking her attack.

Before she could retreat again, he kicked her stomach and sent her skidding across the ground instead of his lyre. The hook swords clanked onto the ground. The man walked to her while being careful of the miraculouses scattered on the chilled floor.

The woman picked herself up. She needed to get another box. She could steal two if the gods gave her luck.

She looked up at the enemy, then at the glass case in the wall. She remained stone until he prepared for an attack. Then she sprinted and fell to her stomach, sliding past him. Once she started to slow down she jumped up and ran to the case. She snatched one of her swords from the ground and swung it across and into the glass. The shards sprinkled everywhere and crunched and scratched as she shifted her feet to take as many of the boxes available.

"Second Cha-!"

The woman had taken her second sword and threw it at the man before he finished. He dodged and the blade missed, however.

She took three boxes stacked on top of each other and bolted for the exit. A third person blocked her path. She had seen this person before. An elderly woman with a staff gripped in her hand. Shorter than the pharaoh yet much more experienced in magic. She was the magician who gave the directions of the temple.

"You betray your allies!" The pharaoh yelled, "Unless you were willing to bring me here to trap me!"

The magician only looked at her with amusement. Her eyes were saying, "Oh how young and stupid you are. You know little of anything."

But her voice said, "Only those worthy enough can claim the power of a miraculous. Your test of worthiness was your greed."

The pharaoh scowled again. How all of this made her want to howl. She left her weapons too far from reach. So instead, she dropped to the ground and swiped her feet to knock the magician over. The man then came after her, so she ran out of the temple and back to her kingdom.

The man dressed as a snake chased her. The magician didn't lag far behind. They worked for this "Order of the Guardians". They were a part of it.

The snake man kept watch of these miraculouses while the old magician sought those who could take the role of a hero.

The pharaoh was a hero. She dressed as a wolf to protect her kingdom. She could have done better if those Order of the Guardians saw that.

She would have to make do with the wolf; A loyal flying animal that knew who the alpha was.

Behind her, she heard the sand being shifted from feet not her own. She heard the heavy breathing of a man. The snake. These heightened senses would be useful in defeating Octavian.

The shifted sand caught up to her and a shadow blocked the sun from her sweating face. The snake had leaped into the sky, falling back down to attack. The wolf jumped back and both landings sent waves of sand to ripple in the blistering ocean of gold.

The snake wouldn't listen. There was no point in persuading. She charged at him, swerving around at the last second and kicked her knee into his back. He fell forward. She rushed ahead, but he grabbed her ankle and she fell into the sand. He grabbed her wrist and took the bracelet. White light traveled down her body, taking away her wolf outfit and returning her old one.

The snake stood up. The magician somehow caught up to them. She examined the miraculous, giving it back to the snake when she deemed it to be in fine condition.

"Lunna; kwami of loyalty, you must learn to pick your alphas wisely." The magician told the little animal that hovered beside the pharaoh. A kwami. It's ears drooped with guilt.

The pharaoh picked herself up, dusting the sand off of her clothes and hair. She glared at the two members of The Order. The snake and the magician. Once Octavian was defeated, she would come back to execute them.

The magician raised her wrinkled finger at her, speaking, "Pharaoh of Egypt, you have done many wrongs in your lifetime. You protect your kingdom to protect your status and your life. You have no right to steal a miraculous and its powers."

She scoffed, "I paid you to tell me how to find your temple. You will take gold for any task. Greed is not my test but yours!"

The magician lowered her finger, casting her staff out in its place. The wind picked up. The pharaoh assumed a sand storm would come to claim all three humans and a kwami. Instead, something ominous grew behind her. Turning around, a hole in the air opened wide enough for a grown person to walk through. It howled with the wind echoing inside. Nothing could be seen but black.

She turned to the magician and snake. The old lady held his forearm to keep him in place. The kwami rested in her hands.

The hole pulled the pharaoh inside of it, but she resisted. She dug her feet into the sand, taking a terrifying step to the snake. She feared she would be eaten with each step.

Reaching out, she tried to take the bracelet. The snake saw this and stepped back. The pharaoh became impatient. She jumped forward and clutched the bracelet. Her feet left the ground. The sand no longer held onto her, so the hole pulled her in. It clawed at her and bared teeth to consume her.

The frantic magician pulled the snake back and the pharaoh lost her grip. She had the bracelet and the kwami, but the hole swallowed her. She fell into the dark pit and her old world became a frame within it. The hole closed, and everything shut up. She could only hear her breathing.

On the outside, still in the scorching sun, the snake and magician walked back to the temple.

"It looks like we will have to move the miracle boxes." The old magician spoke.

"If you had not taken the money, we would not have to move." The snake said as his bracelet beeped. He stopped it and a kwami who looks like a snake flew out of the jewelry.

"In all honesty, a part of me hoped she would pass, but I was wrong. Now Egypt will wonder where their pharaoh had vanished to…" The magician thought, "Ah! We will say the poison of Asp killed her."

"Won't I be seen as the villain, then?"

"Miraculous holders are not stuck with one name for eternity. I've always preferred 'Viperion' for the snake."

Student and teacher. They left behind their worries of the royal thief, but this thief still possessed the wolf miraculous. They still had the kwami. They only had to wait until life gave them the right opportunity. Only, it took longer than a lifetime.

The hole kept their spirit wandering in a void of silence for years. Nothing came to them and time passed while they stayed. Father Time still mocked them. Until, finally, they learned to control the void. And they found a city that hid the only thing to reclaim their kingdom.


	2. Ghost Sighting

Three months. Three months had passed and much has changed. An Akuma attack during the Christmas of last year changed a lot of things.

The cold air nipped at Paris. Spring had just begun, so it would take a while for warmer weather to arrive. The roads were as busy as usual but peaceful despite all of the noise. Hawkmoth hadn't been attacking the city as often, which was more worrying than if he were. Maybe two recurring superheroes that started making more appearances to fights caused it. He would need some time to plan how to handle them.

It was always a gamble if they would show or bot. One could occasionally spot a bronze eagle gliding in the dark, cloudy sky. Aquila still preferred to remain hidden, but it put him further into the spotlight in the Ladyblog and the news channel. Everyone wanted to see who could spot him first before the day ended. Ladybug and Chat Noir were still favorites, but the bird had gained his own fanbase simply by being a mystery.

A wolf sighting soon after Christmaster gained a lot more attention for the first few weeks. So many interviews and questions that had to be turned down before the five minutes ran out. Her face stayed on the front page of websites for weeks, challenging Ladybug's popularity for a short time. The wolf became older news with each Akuma attack, but reporters would still chase her for a few questions when they saw her.

Akuma patrols were more leisurely with four pairs of eyes throughout the city. The wolf spent her night making a few simple rounds. She mainly checked the places her Parisian friends would constantly visit after school. She couldn't visit those places with her mask off or the might spot her. Coming up with a reason why she moved away, then suddenly returned would be tricky to make believable.

She sighed, absorbing all of the colors and sounds at the coffee shop. She always loved the snacks there. Arden could never get her hooked on caffeine though.

Sitting down and legs swinging back and forth over the roof, Lune pressed the green Fenton Phone in her ear to talk. "Everything is clear. Thanks for letting me borrow the wormhole again."

"No problem." Sam responded, "We'll get everything running."

"Great. Just put it where I came in from."

The call stopped. The earpieces had static for a few seconds before buzzing out. Lune still needed to work in Amity if Kaetlyn were to arrive home in time for food. Now not only did they live dual lives but in two places thousands of miles apart.

The wormhole made everything easier. Give it specific enough coordinates and you can go anywhere on Earth. Anywhere on land at least. Amity would otherwise flood.

Lune took in a few more seconds of the shop. People with night jobs came to stay awake for a while longer, students stayed to finish studying or complete projects. The life of a college student seemed...restless.

She stood up, only a silhouette with warm golden lights behind her. The sky had nothing but clouds. You could only tell they were clouds by the way the moonlight shined through them.

No one saw the wolf casually make their way to a quieter part of the city. It could only get so peaceful in a tourist's city, but no one would notice a glowing green hole in the wall of a building here.

However, she still took extra precautions. She dipped into an alleyway, scanning the area and listening for anything suspicious. Everything seemed fine.

"Turn it on." She said over the earpiece. Soon enough, a green dot popped out from the brick wall. The fizzing sound coming from it slowly grew louder as it grew larger into a tall oval fit for a person.

Lune walked through, the crisp night air becoming rusted as she exited the packed and luxurious city and entered an old garage in a less well-kept part of Amity Park. It was the only place her friends could safely keep the wormhole without giving her any hints on Danny Phantom's secret identity. A complex mess of alter egos they were all tangled in.

Sam dragged a large tarp across the floor and threw it over a large machine. So many buttons and dials. Lune still had difficulty believing she and her friends built it. They had the Ghost Zone portal for inspiration. The blueprints for it also helped.

"How was it in Paris again?" Sam asked as she moved old boxes to conceal the lump under the tarp. An old and abandoned place still left risk for some strangers to stumble upon it and either break it or steal it.

They couldn't constantly move the machine back and forth every time Lune wanted to visit Paris, and it took too much power to make a wormhole without the generator Tucker somehow got running -He amplified it too- It had to be used for emergencies, but occasionally they could afford using some juice.

Lune took a deep breath in, already missing the unique smell of the city of lights and love. "It felt nice to be back." She answered Sam's question. If only Kaetlyn could go there and visit as a tourist. Not a student or a hero.

Sam clapped the dust off of her hands and walked to the garage door. Lune saw this and followed her. They said their goodbyes and the wolf went home while the goth locked up.

Amity had fewer people, but Lune knew more of them. Nice and quiet with less distractions and more time to binge-watch classics. That's what she felt like doing. In Paris, she would be asleep already. Though Amity still had a few more hours before bed. She could fit in a movie or two.

Lune stopped ways before reaching her home. She found a place to hide before saying the magic words, "Moon set." White light traveled down her body and replaced the wolf with a sophomore girl in jeans and a blue jacket. A little white kwami flew out of the bracelet around the girl's wrist.

"I'm hungry!" The kwami groaned.

"I never used my howl, Lunna." The girl said. She sighed, "But I'll get you something for dinner."

Lunna grinned, ears perking up. She hid inside of the girl's hood as she made her way to her house. The downstairs lights were still on and the smell of spaghetti escaped through the cracks of the front door. The girl unlocked it and announced her arrival.

"Just in time, Kaetlyn! I was about to call you." Her father said as he finished up at the stove. Two empty bowls were already set on the table.

"Where's Mom?"

"Sleeping. They wanted her in early for work tomorrow."

Kaetlyn nodded then took her bowl from the table and walked to the stove. Lunna flew upstairs to the girl's bedroom, phasing through the ceiling to get there. Her dad didn't notice.

"What are we watching tonight?" He asked. Kaetlyn started listing off movies on her watch list. Her dad would cross off the ones Mom wanted to watch too. It kept going back and forth while she filled her bowl with freshly cooked pasta. She walked to the table and took her seat. It took a few more minutes to settle on a movie they haven't finished yet. Her dad set it up and let it play while he prepared his serving for dinner.

Halfway through her meal, Kaetlyn's phone buzzed with texts. Reid wanted to talk. She didn't have time for a conversation, but a simple reply wouldn't hurt.

She pressed "send" and Reid immediately responded.

 _"Eating dinner. I'll see you at school."_ She had said.

 _"Good! Miss you already!"_ He texted back.

Kaetlyn would have set her phone down afterward if a notification from her news app didn't pop up. She checked it instantly. It brought her to a page with a dark and blurry picture of some figure flying above city buildings in Paris. The article speculated if it was an Akuma, but Lune dealt with this figure before. He was no Akuma. Akumas were living people.

This figure had a wild mohawk and a tail replacing his legs. The man infuriated Lune with just a thought. He vanished last time she fought him, but she never suspected he would have time to fly to Paris.

"I'm full." Kaetlyn excused herself and took her bowl to the sink, then hurrying upstairs.

"Aren't we going to finish-"

"I just remembered about a science test tomorrow. I should study!" Kaetlyn hurried down the hall and into her bedroom.

She yelled, "Big problem!" Then remembered her mom was sleeping and used a quieter tone, "Graves somehow got to Paris. We're going back there now."

Lunna didn't question anything. Funny since she usually had some sarcastic remark. She would have at least asked about food. Kaetlyn would question it later. She opened the window and climbed out, sitting on the windowsill. She took a deep breath and made her way down. Not too gracefully, but she didn't get hurt.

She briskly walked down the sidewalk to get away from windows. Then she transformed and Lune hurried to the garage. She had a key on her and unlocked the door. That awful rusted scent returned.

She shoved the boxes out of the way and pulled the tarp off. Lune ran around the garage, closing the door, turning on an old flashlight, powering the machine, and setting coordinates.

The dials didn't reach any danger zones and all of the buttons worked. The machine lit up and hummed. The satellite dish spun around for a few seconds before picking a wall. A green laser shot out and started growing on the stone. The light grew into an oval big enough for Lune. She walked through and entered an abandoned warehouse in Paris, the rusty smell turning into a dusty smell.

No one should be coming to the building, especially at midnight. Small conveniences from different time zones. Lune still did her best to hide the wormhole. No one could shut it off for her, so it would have to stay on until Graves was dealt with.

Once she hid the wormhole, Lune rushed off to find Michael Graves. He could have made it across the city during the time it took to arrive, but the article's photo was all that was offered as a lead.

She searched the area, and when she couldn't find him, she kept checking the article for any other clues. It had nothing. Only the picture and speculations. Lune continued through Paris, using her heightened hearing to listen for him. It took a few minutes before she heard something in the sky. Graves could be flying around.

She looked up, confused at first, but then realized Aquila flew towards her. He landed on the rooftop she stood on, his large metal wings folding behind his back. His hero's suit stood out compared to the others.

"It's been a while since I've seen you." He said with an uninterested tone.

"It's been a while since an Akuma attack. I'm on patrol." She replied in French.

"Why not wait until morning?"

Ghosts weren't common in Paris. Amity might be the only place that suffers from them unless Graves decides to live his afterlife in the city.

"I...might have found someone."

"An Akuma?"

"Not really" Then Lune realized how late it was in Paris. "Wait, why are you up?"

Aquila shrugged, glancing away for a moment, "I couldn't sleep."

"Then can you help me? I can't find Graves."

The bird activated his special ability. His eyes glowed goldenly and he looked around from the rooftop. "What am I looking for?" He asked. She didn't expect him to be so compliant.

"College student with a mohawk. Decades-old fashion sense. He can fly too."

"A weird name for a weird person." He murmured. He looked around some more, walking along the edge of the roof. Lune had to wait in the middle to stay out of his way.

She tapped her bandaged toes on the concrete ground. Her arms were also bandaged. She sometimes missed her white suit in its former glory. Ever since her miraculous lost one of the five purple jewels on it, her suit became tattered and less hero-like. Lunna said she didn't know where the fifth jewel vanished to, but something had to have happened to it to be damaged.

"Uhm, I saw someone phase through a cinéma wall…" Aquila's words pulled Lune from her thoughts. She walked towards him and had to squint to see Cinema le Sorbonne in the distance. The same movie theater Kaetlyn and her friends would visit when they had the money.

In an instant, Lune roof-hopped her way to the cinema.

"Slow down!" She heard Aquila shout, but she ignored him. The sooner she could beat Graves the easier it would be to leave Paris out of the whole ghosthunting craze.

Lune made it to the cinema. All of the lights were out and she couldn't see anyone through the dark glass. She tried opening the door.

"Locked…" Maybe she could break in? Ladybug wouldn't be there to clean up any mess and Lune had no idea how to lockpick. Would an employee have irresponsibly left a backdoor unlocked?

The sound of a door shaking caught her attention. "Hey! What're you doing?

Aquila had caught up to her and opened the door with no problem. "I'm opening the door." He said way too casually, then walked in without another word. Lune would have asked where he learned to lockpick while following him inside if a second man's voice didn't speak first.

"Hello, Mister and Misses! What y'all be havin' with your movie? Popcorn? Coke?" A man with purple skin and a mohawk stood behind a cash register. Some of his words came out purely southern without warning. The sudden accent change was always a shock.

"Shift's over. Go home." She said, incensed. Her heart raced with anger. Her eyebrows furrowed

She pulled out her Fenton Thermos; the only thing that could capture Graves and throw him back into the Ghost Zone.

"I'm workin' overtime. Need to save up." Graves continued with his improv with a crooked grin.

"Cut it out and go back to the Ghost Zone already!"

"Ghost Zone?" Aquila questioned. Lune didn't have time to explain anything to him. She gripped the thermos tighter and took a step closer.

"Nah, Paris' funner. More things to do here." Graves dropped to the carpeted ground when a teal laser fired at him from the thermos. He looked back where it hit far off from the cash register and laughed, "I think you gotten worse since our last fight"

Lune growled. Aquila jumped in front of her then plucked one of his metal feathers and shot at Graves with his bow and arrow. It missed too.

"You're an amateur with that aim. You're worse than the wolf!"

"This guy knows how to be annoying," Aquila grumbled.

Lune scoffed, "He's aware of that."

Graves stood up and walked to a countertop. He bent down and dug through the candy they had on display. He took two bags and held them up for the heroes to see. "Chocolate or gummies? I think gummies go best with an action movie." When he got no satisfying reaction in return, he ducked down and popped back up to throw something at them. Aquila used one of his wings to block. Lune jumped back and covered her face.

They eased up when Graves started guffawing. Lune huffed and clenched her fists. She stomped toward him. He smirked and became intangible, then zipped towards the theaters with his ghost tail. The heroes chased him.

"Where is he?"

"He just ran in here." Aquila opened one of the theater doors and waited for Lune to catch up before walking inside. "There's not a lot of places to hide so this should be quick."

They walked down each line of chairs. They were cleaner than an American theater, which Lune adored the most about France.

"Lune, the projection booth!"

She turned around and saw smoke spilling out of the back wall. Some of it gathered and formed a loose image of Graves, who stuck his tongue out to mock her. She growled and lunged at him. A chair then caught her foot and tripped her. Graves laughed as the image dispersed and the smoke cloud traveled up and through the vents. Lune listened carefully.

"I can hear him. Follow me!"

Aquila did so outside of the theater and back to the front of the cinema. Smoke burst through the vent and gave them a coughing fit. It traveled further down and recreated the loose image of Graves.

"I got him." Aquila took another feather and loaded on his bow. He fired and the arrow went straight through the image, dispersing it, but it recollected again.

"Your magic arrows don't work on me. I shoulda told ya. Oops." His smirk stretched into a scowl, "I'm still mad ya tried that though."

The smoke flew toward Aquila and formed into a tangible Graves that kicked his abdomen.

"OOF!" Aquila flew backward through the front door he unlocked. Lune took this time to sneak past Graves and some unpopped popcorn kernels. She loaded them in a straw and started firing at him.

"Ow! Those things get everywhere! I'll have to work even later to clean!"

"You don't work here!"

Graves flew off. Lune dropped the straw and chased him. She saw him phase through an upcoming door and swung it open when she reached it. Inside looked to be the storage room full of snacks and plastic cups and straws. She turned on the light and cautiously walked inside. He could be invisible right in front of her.

A deep glugging sound came from her side. She took another step forward and yipped as she fell. She lifted herself up and instantly recognized the smell.

"If you were any better you wouldn't have made a fool of yourself." The southern accent came out as he floated around the air on his back. Lune had fallen in a pool of popcorn butter. The stench would stay for days...

Graves cackled, spinning in the air while Lune struggled to keep her balance. "Woah!" He shouted. A spotted yoyo almost hit him. Ladybug jumped in front of Lune and spun it in circles.

"Butter goes good with popcorn, but too much can be unhealthy." She said.

Then Chat Noir landed beside her and added, "It doesn't hurt to splurge from time to time." He relaxed his stance and leaned towards her, "Maybe we can see a Mewsical later?"

"We need to beat this Akuma first, Kitty."

Aquila came and helped Lune up. "I thought we could use some help." He whispered to her. She thanked him quietly then turned to Ladybug and Chat Noir.

"Graves isn't an Akuma. I know it's hard to believe but he's...a ghost?"

"Excuse my French. I failed Spanish in school instead." Graves said with a horrible French accent as if to prove his claim.

"A ghost?" Ladybug asked.

"So he's dead? That's cool! How does he do that?" Chat now bounced with energy. At least one person took the idea of an afterlife well.

"Help me trap him. I can do the rest." Lune said.

Ladybug nodded and activated her lucky charm. A flash of red light and something fell into her hands. "A handheld vacuum?"

"I don't feel like being on cleaning duty," Aquila commented. His lack of a dynamic tone made it hard to tell if he was joking or not.

Graves now sat on top of boxes full of bags of popcorn kernels, getting everyone's attention by shouting, "Yer gonna have to. Someone spilled popcorn all over!" He then flew up and kicked the boxes down with his heavy boots. All the bags had been opened and rained kernels in the storage room.

"Watch out!" Aquila jumped in front of the other three heroes and stretched out his wings. Pounds of kernels buried them, silence filling the room. First, Ladybug's head popped out, then the other three followed.

"Figured out anything yet, M'lady?" Chat asked while Aquila started pulling each ally from the kernels.

"I'm still thinking…"

"I can buy some time." Lune offered. Aquila picked her up and let go so she could stand on solid-enough ground. "Midnight Howl!" She yelled. Power surged and collected in her gut, then traveled up her throat. She opened her mouth and let out a deafening howl. Graves used enough strength to not fly into the wall, but the wave of popcorn that the howl created towered over him and crashed down on him. His intangible head popped out from the kernels and showed an enraged expression.

"Yeah, you wanna fight?!" Lune challenged.

"I got this!" Chat ran past her and used his metal staff to fight Graves instead. Lune watched him block Grave's punches, but then he tricked Chat by pretending to kick then left hooked.

"That's it!" Ladybug exclaimed.

"Hm?"

"You two will follow me." She got up and ran outside of the storage room, "Chat Noir!"

He nodded and extended his staff to push Graves back into the popcorn. The group continued down the hallway, stopping at an intersection.

"Aquila, you wait here until he comes." Ladybug pointed to the men's restroom, "Lune, over there." Then to a corner just down a hallway. She had Chat hide then hid herself.

Lune waited at the corner, listening for Graves. His footsteps were too loud to not notice as he stomped towards the intersection.

"I should get a raise for this." He grumbled.

"Again: You don't work here!" Frustration etched her voice. Lune came from the corner once he stood in the middle of the intersection.

"Man, I'm fired already?"

"I'm glad to say it, but yes," Aquila said and revealed himself.

"Cataclysm!" Chat used his ability to destroy the entrance down one of the hallways.

Ladybug then came from the hallway Graves had walked down. Each hero blocked a pathway to leave the cinema.

"Give up, Graves. You're outnumbered and surrounded." Ladybug pointed the vacuum at him. Lune did the same with her thermos.

"I'm dead. I can turn invisible and phase through stuff. What're ya gonna do?"

A bronze feather whistled past him.

"Hey!" Graves became foggy as his body turned to smoke. "For a bird, ya have bad hearing. Your arrows have no effect."

"You should clean up your act. No one likes being insulted." Ladybug then turned on the vacuum.

"Hey, wait!" Graves had no time to do anything else. The vacuum sucked up all of the smoke and trapped him inside. Lune walked towards Ladybug and stared inside with amazement. Then she remembered to thank her.

"Let him out. I can handle it from here." She pointed the thermos directly at the vacuum, ready to push the button and hopefully never see Graves again.

Ladybug opened the container and let the smoke shoot out. Lune activated the thermos, but Graves dodged and was instead sucked up by a green glowing portal.

"Huh? What happened?" Chat asked.

Lune's growl grew into a roar, "Not again! This happened last time too!"

"Do you mind explaining?" Aquila asked.

"Michael Graves is a ghost. He died I don't how long ago. In America, there's a town full of other ghosts. I stayed there to help keep things under control. I met him one night and fought him. Before I could beat him he fell into the portal thing like just now."

"Is it one of his powers?"

"He can turn into smoke too." Lune didn't feel like explaining how she had merely a suspicion Graves teamed up with someone else. A strange woman had been showing up occasionally. Not on purpose. Lune would sometimes catch the woman creating tears to reach into the human world from wherever she came from.

"I have to go. I'll see you guys some other time." Aquila excused himself and left the cinema before anyone could say goodbye. He never got too close to any other heroes. He didn't even want to be a hero in the first place, but Lune dragged him into the career when they desperately needed help.

"I still have a few minutes. Maybe we can catch that movie?" Chat turned to Ladybug with a hopeful look.

"It's a little late for that. We should all be asleep." She then threw her lucky charm into the air and sent her ladybugs to repair and clean up everything during Grave's fight.

Lune sighed with a defeated tone, "Yeah, I think I'll go home... I'll see you later."

* * *

The woman leaned out of the tear she created, admiring a purple jewel between her fingers. "Another ghost in Paris. Who would have thought?"

"Yes. Who would have?" Hawk Moth replied.

He appeared to be an intimidating silhouette with the pale light from the window. The muntin of the large circular window created the shape of a moth, also casting the shape onto the ground were Hawk Moth stood. The woman's tear floated ominously in the air behind him. Only the soft green glow barely lit the woman's face

"I wonder if ghosts could be akumatized. They still feel strong emotions after all." She suggested, staring into the jewel.

The feeling of being watched seeped into her. She gave Hawk Moth a sidelong gaze. He stared at her with a blank expression, but his eyes sparkled with curiosity.


	3. Sidetracked

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Two chapters posted today because I happened to skipped last week! ..Yeah... I'm sorry 0~0

Everyone traveled on foot, by car, by mass transit, or by rooftops to get somewhere and enjoy the new weekend. Lune fit in the rooftop category. She let her legs hang over the edge and counted how many cars had what color. Danny should be coming soon. Lune should have just waited to go to the garage with him, but she lacked patience. She would meet him where the wormhole opens when he got there.

Everyone agreed it would be best to have Danny be familiar with Paris. News somehow got out that the flying figure from last week's news article was a ghost. Lots freaked out, others didn't believe it, and a few felt they would have to prepare in case of another ghost. Stress skyrocketed trying to figure out how Graves got to Paris and fear added to it when the possibility of more ghosts sneaking overcame to mind.

Now Lune had the chance to be the teacher. She would have to show Danny Phantom around the city and help him adapt to a new country and culture.

* * *

The four of them hung out in the garage, getting ready for the tour. Danny at least. Sam kept an eye on the wormhole and its power usage, Reid sat on a wooden box while he looked at his phone, and Tucker played games beside him. Danny was getting a hold of Lune through the Fenton Phones, obviously anxious.

"You don't have to learn a new language yet. Things should work out fine." Reid said to Danny.

"I'm not worried about that. It's the fact that I might have to go back. We set up this tour for a reason."

"Which was harder to do since Lune isn't a part of our group." Sam chimed in.

"But she helped us here in Amity," Tucker said.

"I mean she doesn't know Danny is a half ghost. _We_ were there when he jumped into the ghost portal. She's a superhero from Paris who came to Amity because Akumas decided to show up."

"Actually you were the one who wanted me to go inside the portal."

Reid softly sighed with a smile. It humored him.

"Hey, Lune's calling," Tucker said. He pointed to the intercom system they had made to be able to keep track of multiple conversations between countries. The light for Lune's Fenton Phones lit up. Sam walked over and pressed a button.

"We'll have to reschedule that tour. Don't turn on the wormhole." Lune's voice sounded critical. The sound of wind picked up through the speaker.

"What? Lu-" She hung up before Sam could finish. The group exchanged worried looks, Reid's the most panicked.

* * *

Green lasers fired from the news tower. Civilians stared at it too. Lune rushed to get to the rooftop and help, This had to be an Akuma attack. And it was.

A build board had fallen and been damaged, covering the roof with 's a cracked face. Kaetlyn's old science teacher got onto the news? How?

"Now I'm going to seize your Kwami, cat. True or false!"

An akumatized had a vacuum backpack on her back and used the hose to shoot at Chat Noir. Her hair and skin had turned pink and she wore grey spandex with boots and lime green trimming.

Lune ran from behind, jumped on her shoulders, and leaped to the medal crane Chat stood on.

"Happened to be around. I thought I'd stop by." She said, then scanned the area, "Where's Ladybug?"

"Kwami Buster took her kwami. I don't know where she is, but I hope she's safe."

-Now Kwami Buster- fired the laser from her vacuum pack again. The heroes jumped opposite ways to dodge.

"What about your Cataclysm? Can't you use that to destroy the Akuma?"

"I already used it. It didn't work." He replied.

"What?!"

The third laser hit Chat Noir this time. He hopped off of the crane and into the metal box it carried before his black cat kwami got sucked up into Kwami Buster's vacuum. She started to climb the crane.

Lune searched for a weapon but couldn't find anything. These situations reminded her to put "Fix your miraculous" at the top of her priority list.

Kwami Buster reached the top of the crane. Lune charged at her and fought to point the hose away from herself while clawing at the pack that held Ladybug and Chat Noir's kwamis. Kwami Buster shoved her off and she hit the concrete ground. Looking up, The box lowered and the crane dropped it. It fell to its side and a boy with blonde hair crawled to the exit. She couldn't see his face. Kwami Buster didn't see him at all, but Lune running to the exit to follow Chat caught her attention.

Adrenaline made her body shake. She bounced on her feet to loosen up, but Kwami Buster's nearing footsteps counteracted the attempt. Lune had to choose between three hallways. She turned left and dipped into the closest room, catching a glimpse of Kwami Buster before the door shut. Backing from the door, Kwami Buster's footsteps grew softer until it faded away. Lune had to take a seat on the comfy chair by the vanity to relax. There must be several dressing rooms on this floor then.

A wolf's hearing could hear a door down the second of the three hallways creak open then close shut. It couldn't have been Kwami Buster. Lune cautiously opened the door and peeked around the corner. She only saw the elevator door down the hall close. She ran to the second elevator next to it and selected the bottom floor.

She waited inside, chuckling at the elevator music. The adrenaline still had some effect. In a few more seconds, the elevator dinged and Lune ran into a tall and open circular room with plenty of windows and expensive lighting.

"Over here!"

Lune focussed ahead of her to see someone in a banana costume waving at her.

"Chat Noir?" She hopped over the reception desk between them and joined him. "Is a banana costume _all_ you could find?" She asked him.

He shrugged.

"True or false: Chat Noir has disguised himself as ?"

They looked up and saw Kwami Buster standing on one of the lights. All Chat could come up with was saying, "Uh… Stay Peachy?"

The heroes ran for the front doors with Lune criticizing Chat's choice of words. "Peachy? What does a peach have anything to do with a banana?!"

Kwami Buster fell on the ground in front of them and they slid to a stop on the smooth wooden ground. Lune swung for a right hook but Kwami Buster grabbed her arm and threw her to the side. She jumped back on her feet and delivered a turning kick successfully. Kwami Buster gritted her teeth, stood up and pointed the hose at Lune. She was prepared to dodge.

Thankfully, a horde of kwamis came flying through the front doors to cause a distraction. With no clue about what was happening but accepting it anyway, Lune and Banana Chat ran back and jumped over the reception desk to hide behind. They knocked over too many computer monitors to pay for. Hopefully, Ladybug could fix everything before they had to.

The kwamis led Kwami Buster upstairs, leaving Chat and Lune with a red dragon kwami. It opened its mouth to show a small human… Maybe Lune was dreaming.

"Wait is that you, Ladybug? Just when I think I finally know you, you manage to surprise me again." Chat said. Lune gave him a look and raised an eyebrow.

"That's very sweet of you, but I'm not Ladybug. I'm Multi Mouse. Ladybug has sent me to fetch your miraculous to defeat Kwami Buster." The mini-human said. They were in a hero's costume.

"I guess your ability is to shrink?" Lune asked with suspicion while Chat took off his ring and gave it to Multi Mouse.

"Almost. I can multiply into many Multi Mice. Oh yeah, Ladybug said you should meet her on the roof."

Chat and Lune listened to their orders and followed The red kwami to the roof. The giant sign Chat had destroyed leaned onto the stairs, so they had some cover to sneak around. They didn't entirely need it since the kwami horde kept Kwami Buster's attention on them. Though their distraction only lasted a couple of seconds longer before she sucked up the last kwami.

"I'll keep her distracted. You keep an eye out for Ladybug." Lune told Chat before running around and revealing herself.

"True or false: I'll have all of the kwamis after taking yours!"

Lune barrel rolled out of the way of the laser, rolling to her feet and running as it continued to chase her. When the laser stopped, she spiraled closer to Kwami Buster and landed a punch. She flew backward and landed on the floor.

She stood up and fired some more. Lune serpentined her way around them until she got close enough to side kick Kwami Buster. A final laser hit her and sucked Lune's kwami.

"Lunna!"

Kaetlyn missed her kicked and almost tripped when bolting for the closest hiding spot. She pulled her hood over her head and dipped behind the metal beams of the broken sign.

* * *

Lunna phased through a lime green wall and found a dozen pairs of eyes on her. Hers were wide. She had forgotten how to speak.

"Hey, you're not from our miracle box."

"What are you doing here?"

"I didn't know there were still other kwamis."

So many faces that hadn't been seen for thousands of years. If they met on better terms things would have been joyous. Instead, her owner's words echoed in her head.

"Uh-Uhm… My owner was helping the fight."

The dragon and bee kwami flew up to Lunna. They opened their mouths to show two Multi Mice.

"You must be Lune's kwami." One said. Lunna nodded, not wanting to risk slipping up.

"Thank you for helping us." The second Multi Mouse said, then turned to Tikki and Plagg; Ladybug and Chat Noir's kwamis.

"Plagg, Mullo, unify!" The first mouse said.

"Tikki, Mullo, unify!" The second one followed. Both mice's costumes changed to be a blend of Multi Mouse and their respective second kwamis. Lunna had never seen unified miraculouses. It had been too long since she got to talk to another kwami.

"Cataclysm!" The first mouse activated Plagg's ability, walked to the wall of the pack, and placed her hand on it. Green light glowed through the cracks. They spread throughout the vacuum until it exploded, freeing all of the kwamis.

Her ears drooped. She had an alpha to follow.

* * *

Kaetlyn heard an explosion. She peered through the holes between the metal beams to see the mass of kwamis escaping the broken vacuum. The Akuma also flew out of it and left behind a normal science teacher.

A little white kwami flew straight towards Kaetlyn's hiding spot.

"Lunna! But how did you get out?"

"Multi Mouse helped. She also beat Kwami Buster."

"I can see that," Kaetlyn smirked. She looked back to see many Multi Mice joining together and growing into an average-sized human. Ladybug stood beside her. Multi Mouse took off her miraculous and handed it to Ladybug, de-transforming into Marinette.

The sight shocked her. It felt strange to see someone she knew to be a superhero. It was more annoying with Chloe. Marinette could make a good hero though. Too bad Chat Noir and Kaetlyn now knew.

Kaetlyn found a better hiding spot to transform, of course staying away from the other heroes. Lunna hovered at eye level beside her.

"Guess we couldn't help that much this time."

"But you helped keep Chat Noir safe when he dressed like a weird banana." Lunna retorted.

Kaetlyn giggled, "Let's go. We still need Danny to be at least a _little_ familiar with Paris. Moon-!"

Her phone buzzed, cutting her off. She reached into her jacket pocket and looked at the contact. She answered Reid's call.

"Kaetlyn! How're you doing?" He sounded perturbed.

"Fine? I'm doing homework. Teacher gave us stuff to do this weekend."

"Okay… I felt like checking on you. Lune had to do something and canceled the tour so I got nervous."

She raised an eyebrow, "Why would you worry about me? Hope everyone's okay. Now I need to finish studying before my phone gets taken away again."

"Studying? You said you were working on home-"

She hung up. Lunna and Kaetlyn stared wide-eyed at each other.

…

"Moon Rise!"

Lune turned around and walked to the exit. Ladybug had taken Marinette home and Chat left to take back before she could tell him goodbye. It didn't matter. There would be another Akuma some other day.

She walked down the stairs and towards the elevator while calling through her earphones.

"Danny? The fight ended quicker than I thought. If you still have time I can show you around."

The elevator dinged and she walked inside. Static buzzed in her ears while choosing the bottom floor and waiting to go down.

"Oh, Okay. We'll get the wormhole running again." Danny said.

Thinking about it, things might be a little more hectic right after an Akuma attack. Oh well. Just seemed like Danny Phantom would have to get used to the noise.


	4. Time Changes Things

Sixth-grade language arts had a group project. Partners were chosen by the teacher. Some friends were lucky and were grouped anyway. Most started talking as soon as they sat down, some balanced socialization and work relatively evenly. In a group of three, one did work, the other watched a show on their phone, and the third couldn’t stay focussed.

The teacher  _ had  _ to partner Reid with two other girls. They couldn’t have put him with someone he had at least talked to in the past. All he could do was look at his paper and scribble. The instructions made no sense and his sweaty palms had trouble cooling off despite the freezing room. Her friend appeared intimidating, and she looked uninterested. 

“Hey, uh…”

Reid looked up. The intimidating friend needed his name. “R-Reid.” He stuttered. He  _ spoke  _ in front of her. Did she notice? Did she hear him? She still watched TV. She still didn’t know he existed.

“Do you have any ideas for the project?” The intimidating friend asked.

He made a quick glance at her, which made his words jumbled and his letters shuffled. He cleared his throat to stop himself and stayed quiet. The intimidating friend raised an eyebrow.

“Uhm, what about you, Kaetlyn? Kaetlyn.”

With a soft shake on the shoulder, the girl on her phone looked up and took out an earbud. Her eyes glimmered a beautiful hazel and her long hair had a rich shade of chocolate brown.

She shrugged, waving off her workload. Her friend kept persuading and urging her to do otherwise. Reid sat still, not realizing he stared until she glanced at him. He quickly went back to his scribbling, his hands slightly unsteady.

________________________________________________________

Students were allowed to go outside for lunch. Reid stood in one spot, scanning the yard for them. A hand waving at him caught his eye. Tucker. He hurried to the picnic table with his tray of food.

Sam hadn’t finished her argument with Tucker about meat versus plants. Danny stayed quiet in the corner. Smart. Kaetlyn had her earbuds in and watched a TV show. Reid decided to sit across from her.

“What’s this about?” He asked her. No response. He then lightly tapped the top of her phone. She looked up, realized he found the group and paused the show.

“What’s the show about?” 

“Bit of thriller. Bit of supernatural. I started watching it a few days ago.”

He continued to ask questions about it. She continued to answer with each response getting her more excited. Her eyes lit up and her voice grew louder. Her lips quickly curved into a stunning smile. He couldn’t help but stare.

________________________________________________________

She walked with her friends to each class. They always seemed to be around. It would be awkward and too embarrassing to show up with them around. Reid didn’t want to follow, so he only kept an eye out for her when walking to class. She seemed to only have the intimidating friend and two other guys. Maybe it wouldn’t be that bad to greet them, but they only had one class project together. Did she remember him?

He walked to his locker, spotting Kaetlyn talking with one of her friends with dark skin and a yellow shirt. They were at the friend's opened locker. He stared in their direction as he walked by. He played out how things might go in his head. If he said a simple “Hello!” or maybe just a wave? Should he walk up and properly introduce himself or call out her name? No… He’d slip up or come off as creepy!

Someone ran into him. An eighth grader? He almost fell on impact. Eyes were drawn to the scene. To him.

Dash. Another sixth-grader. He had an obvious height advantage compared to most other peers. He snickered as he waltzed off, making the eyes stay glued on longer. Everything became bigger and towered over Reid. Shadows created a dark pit that he couldn’t hide in. He shrank into a little mouse that couldn’t even squeak.

A white glow shined in the pit. It walked past him and waved him to follow, so he did. It took him to the side of the hallway on the corner where all the shadows couldn’t find him. Kaetlyn stood in front of him, but she never bothered with anyone outside of her three friends.

“Learn to speak, for once.” She said with cold eyes. No matter how she felt, they were always prettier than he remembered.

“You’re  _ annoying.  _ All you do is look. Stop staring at me, stop staring at the ground, and  _ talk.” _

Reid’s eyebrow creased.  _ Annoying. Stop staring.  _ His chest suddenly ached, but he nodded. Kaetlyn still glared at him and froze him in place. The last instruction! But his words could barely come out as anything other than random sounds. He stuttered before he would say his first words. So many things he could say and they all crashed into each other and raced around in his mind.

“Forget it. Leave me alone.” Kaetlyn said and returned to her friend. The friend had gathered all of his books, so they headed straight to their next classes.

_ Leave me alone.  _ The words echoed. He gripped his shirt over his chest. 

________________________________________________________

Dinner tasted good, but now the house fell silent. Everyone scattered throughout to do their own things. Reid sat on the side of his bed, looking through his phone to find something to occupy him. He thought about texting Kaetlyn. If anything, he would be interrupting a movie.

That meant she had her phone on silent. He sent her a quick text asking if she had time to talk. He stared at the screen for a short while before placing it on his bedside table, charging it, then leaving his room. He just made it to the doorway before his phone dinged. He lunged for the phone and fell on his mattress, snatching the phone and reading Kaetlyn’s text. She had some free time!

He sat up and leaned against the wall, trying not to pull the plug from the wall socket while he texted her. Their conversation lasted for hours.

________________________________________________________

Despite her eyes being glued to the phone, Kaetlyn easily made her away around students to get to class. Sam followed her, having to stop her at a corner to talk to Danny.

Kaetlyn leaned against the wall nearby a turn in the hallway. The world around her had vanished and became only the characters on screen. The hall’s chatter became muffled, the slamming of lockers diminished, but a shadow quickly grew over her then shrank back down. Kaetlyn looked up to see a boy with black hair and brown eyes. She had seen him somewhere.

He seemed to have been trying to walk away, but his startled eyes locked on to hers. She took out her earbuds.

“S-sorry! I didn’t mean to bump into you. I didn’t bump into you, but I didn’t mean to come across you? Eh… I mean-”

“Ok? Bell’s about to ring.” She said while putting in her earbuds. He apologized again then ran off.

Before she could press play, Sam said, “I thought you didn’t like him.”

“Oh yeah.” He was that annoying quiet kid. “That was a while ago. He’s always staring at me. It’s weird.”

“I think I know why.”

“Hm?”

“Why he stares at you.”

“I don’t care why.” Then she pressed play.

________________________________________________________

He pressed play. Reid’s sister, Natalie, popped a big bowl of popcorn for herself and a smaller one for Kaetlyn. Reid had to get his from the microwave.

He came back and sat next to Kaetlyn on the floor. From the couch, Natalie threw a pillow between them.

“Really?”

“I need to make sure she doesn’t get cooties.” 

“Mom said you need to go to college.” He tossed the pillow back to her. 

She glared at him, throwing a handful of her popcorn at him. Reid sighed with agitation and started picking the pieces off that were stuck to his clothes.

He looked to Kaetlyn. Her eyes were glued to the screen. The world around her had vanished. The movie had started. No one could take her from her trance until it ended.

“Quit staring.” His sister threw the same pillow at him again. Reid turned to her with a displeased expression.

“I don’t care.” Kaetlyn said without taking her eyes away from the movie, “You get used to it when’s he’s been doing it since middle school.”

“Kaetlyn!”

“What?” She chortled.

“I prefer not remembering that…”

She smiled, staring into his brown eyes. She tossed a small handful of popcorn at him. He sighed and slid down to lie on the floor. Kaetlyn giggled more and threw the next handful into her mouth.

________________________________________________________

A new trilogy series Kaetlyn had found kept her up all night. Science would be horrible…

She sluggishly walked to class, staring at the ground and accidentally hitting her head against an opened locker door. She rubbed the sting on her forehead.

A boy closed the door, quickly apologizing with a loud voice. He looked at her, then shrank in size and volume. His words became stuttered and soft.

“It’s fine. My fault.” 

A group of jocks walked by them. They greeted the boy with smiles and waves. One gave him a thumbs up. Kaetlyn glanced between the boy and the group. He had a nervous smile but waved back.

“You have friends?” She asked.

“Uh… Uhm… Th-they’re from my track team…”

“So it took you a year to make friends?”

“N-no. I knew a few people last year. ...Most of my friends went to different middle schools, so…” He trailed off. 

Kaetlyn stared at him, squinting her eyes. “What’s your name?” She thought she froze him for a few seconds, then he started stuttering. 

Finally, he managed to say, “Reid.”

Her eyes stayed on him a little longer. No, he wasn’t shy… Nervous? He could easily talk to others. Split personalities? No… Far from it.

“Cool,” Kaetlyn said before leaving.

________________________________________________________

Kaetlyn and Reid walked down the hall together. They stayed to the side and out of the way of others. 

She noticed a group of boys walking past them. They laughed and made idiotic insults at them. Nearby students directed their attention on the couple, making things a little too uncomfortable. The group walked away and the hall went back to its own business.

“Let them be. They’re only trying to get me to feel bad.” Reid told her.

“I know. You had some bad friends back then.”

“They’re not bad… Just-” He paused to think, “Not fond of you.”

“Wow. Thanks.” Kaetlyn sarcastically replied.

“Th-that’s not what I-”

“It’s alright.” She said, “We’ve grown up as the ‘losers’ in school. Even in France, I had to deal with Chloe.”

“Who?” 

Kaetlyn informed him about Chloe and her attitude. She told him about being the Mayor’s daughter and recklessly revealing herself as Queen Bee. And she slipped in a good amount of venting before they reached her class.

They stopped, waved their partings, then Reid continued to his class. 

________________________________________________________

Friday had to have the loudest lunch periods. Staff had to hush the cafeteria multiple times before Reid got his food from the lunch line. Threatening students with a silent lunch helped somewhat.

His friends from the track team called him to their table. He joined them and quickly jumped into conversations. He noticed Kaetlyn in the corner of his eyes. He fell into the trap and didn’t realize he stared until his friend beside him poked him with their plastic fork.

“Why do you like her? She’s with all the other losers.” He asked.

Reid’s eyebrows furrowed, “I wouldn’t call her a loser.”

“That girl doesn’t even like you.” Another friend said.

He recalled their last encounter. “I don’t think she hates me  _ that  _ much.”

The group burst into laughter. They didn’t act the way they did until Kaetlyn came up. It got annoying.

Reid stood up and stomped away, ignoring his friend’s confused calls. He approached Kaeltyn’s table in the corner of the cafeteria. Her other three friends were with her. He stopped in front of their table and let a stream of air escape his lips.

“Can I sit with you guys? The other tables are packed.”

The four of them exchanged shrugs and unsure looks. Kaetlyn turned back to him and said, “Sure.”

His heart raced. He picked a chair between the intimidating friend and the one with black hair and blue eyes. Kaetlyn sat across from him. She didn’t acknowledge his presence, but she didn’t hate him enough to tell him to leave. That meant something, right?

________________________________________________________

Stomachs growled, but they had only just ordered food. The group found a booth to sit at with Danny and Tucker on one side and Kaetlyn and Sam sitting on the other. Reid found an empty table and dragged one of the chairs back to theirs. He sat at the end of the booth

Tucker started the conversation with a new video game coming out. Sam commented, then Danny. Reid noticed Kaetlyn using up more battery power on the TV and attempted to get her to join. Topics popped up, then were almost immediately thrown away with another.

The cashier called out their orders, hushing the table. Reid took initiative to retrieve their food. He stood up, but had his food behind a chair leg and fell with a loud bang and clatter when moving.

Danny, Tucker, and Kaetlyn burst in laughter. Sam asked about his well being. At least someone cared…

“And that’s why you’re with us, loser!” Kaetlyn shouted between gasps of air.

“What? Shouldn’t you be worried about me?” Reid asked as he stood up and placed the chair back. 

“But it was funny!”

He couldn’t help but start laughing too.

________________________________________________________

“Smile!” Sam held up her phone and took a picture of Danny and the new ghost portal his parents built. They were in his parent’s basement that had been used for inventing and testing ghost-hunting machinery. Tucker recorded everything on his phone. Reid stood next to him. Kaetlyn had left for Paris thanks to her Dad’s new job, so they agreed to send any videos or pictures when Danny’s parents’ latest invention had been finished.

“Okay, I showed you the portal. Can we get out of here now? My parents could be back any minute.” Danny said while walking back to the group. 

He held a black and white jumpsuit with a sticker of his father’s face on the chest. A large octagonal hole in the wall emitted a soft blue glow. It had large black cables slithering inside and a box with dials next to it that did something with the settings. No one understood how it worked.

Sam approached the portal built to admire it. “Come on, Danny, a ghost zone? Aren’t you curious?”

He stopped next to her, gazing into the portal. “You know what, your right.”

Reid then brought all of the attention to himself, “Hang on, you’re going to walk inside a portal to another dimension? What if something happens?”

Tucker placed his hand on Reid’s shoulder, “At least he would have died a genius. Hey, Danny, think you could help me with my homework after you die?”

“I don’t think walking through a broken ghost portal makes me a genius.” Danny replied as he put the jumpsuit over his clothes and zipped it up. Sam paused him to take the sticker of his dad’s face off of the chest, then let him go. Reid watched with more concern than Sam and Tucker. 

Danny stared inside the portal, then cautiously walked inside the deep tunnel. He didn’t get far when he placed his hand on a button. The portal exploded with pale green light and Danny’s agonizing screams. Sam ran to the dials to try anything that could stop it.

The blinding light suddenly vanished and someone collapsed onto the metal flooring. Reid rushed in and dragged him out.

“Why would you do that?!” Tucker exclaimed.

“And  _ you  _ said  _ he  _ was being reckless?” Sam asked.

Reid gently placed him back on the floor and said, “Those weren’t my exact words. And you were being reckless too since you came up with the idea. That’s not the point- We should be worrying about Danny!”

“Are you sure that’s him?” Tucker asked. 

They stared at the unconscious boy. He had tanner skin than Danny and white hair instead of black. His jumpsuit was mainly black with a white belt, boots, and collar.

“Either he got replaced or that’s him.” Reid responded. He stepped back and started pacing. Tucker stopped recording. Sam stared at Danny, thinking.

Tucker paused, then called back to Reid, “How are we going to tell Kaetlyn?”

“I think we need all four of us awake to decide that.” Sam said.

“We don’t even know if the fourth one is human!” Reid tugged his hoodie strings, silently listing what he knew, but too many questions.

________________________________________________________

Their spring break vacation in Paris would be over in a few days. After an Akuma attack earlier in the day, Reid had some issues with Lune. It seemed she thought that since she had powers, no one else could help themselves and had to depend on her. The petty argument did leave some guilt, however.

Reid scrolled through websites about Paris’ superheroes. One called “Ladyblog” mainly had info on Ladybug. Chat Noir and Lune had their own pages, but with not as much information as the main hero in spots. 

His eyes started to feel heavy after so much reading. Going to sleep crossed his mind a few times. His family had fallen asleep and the hotel room surrounded him in shadow. Natalie’s snoring somehow didn’t wake up their parents.

Something lightly knocked on the window at the far end of the room. Reid looked up and saw a girl dressed in a white wolf costume. Lune. He used the light from his phone screen to help him cautiously get out of bed and walk to the window. He opened it and expected Lune to say something, but she only stared.

“What are you doing here…?” Reid asked coldly. He had lost enough sleep already and didn’t feel like putting up with superheroes.

“Uh…..” Her brain left her head. He rolled his eyes and closed the window.

“No, wait!” Lune exclaimed hushed. He didn’t realize he smashed her hand between the window and windowsill. Her yip altered him and he quickly slid it open.

“Sorry!” He apologized while she rubbed her injured hand. 

“I-i-i-it’s fine.”

The shock left him. He rubbed the back of his head, looking back at his family sharing two hotel beds, then back to Lune and sighed, “Why are you here?”

“I...I wanted to say s-sorry for what I said earlier today….” She glanced up at him for only a second, then fell silent. Hours ago she could get mad and talk without stuttering. “Is that it?” 

“W-well…” She looked up at him and spoke slowly, “..I saw you were heading to the Eiffel Tower. The Akuma must have interrupted that..sorry..”

Then he remembered himself only a few years ago.

“I was thinking...mmm-maybe...I could take you up there..? It’s okay if you don’t want to go...It’s just...” She gradually spoke faster, “I-i-it’s not as busy this late at night, a-a-and- In fact, there’s probably no one there at all. The view is nice at night, you know? All the...lights and the lights and- I-I already said that...um...”

He chuckled with cringe, giving in, “I would love to see Paris from the tower. It’s really the only reason I agreed to the trip.”

Lune’s hazel eyes twinkled. It could be the soft yellow lights from the hundreds of other buildings around. It could be something else. 

She moved on the windowsill to give him room. Reid climbed over and sat beside her. He awkwardly wrapped his arm around her shoulder, not entirely sure how to go about being carried to the Eiffel Tower. Lune wrapped her arm around his waist and leaped from rooftop to rooftop. 

Buses and taxis and cars sped through the Parisian streets. People still crowded the sidewalks and filled shops and other buildings. Amity could never be so busy.

They arrived at the top of the tower. Lune let go of Reid and let him walk to the edge of the platform. He gazed through the chain-link fence in awe. The moon’s pale light contrasted to the warm yellows of the city. The chill breeze blew against him and made things more dream-like. The perfect view of Paris…

Muffled breathes dragged him back into reality. Lune had fallen asleep near the elevator doors of the tower, her head leaning against the fence. Reid had lost track of time, but it had to be around midnight. He shook his head with a genuine smirk.

He stood up and approached her, crouching down to poke her shoulder. When that didn’t rouse her, he gently shook her. 

“Lune.” He said.

She opened her eyes and saw Reid up close in her face. She jumped back, her face exploding with bright red.

“I-I-I-I-”

“It’s okay!” Reid chuckled, “It’s okay. I would’ve fallen asleep too.” He almost yawned, his body starting to feel sluggish.

Maybe he was too tired, or maybe such a beautiful sight of Paris excited him, but Reid gave Lune a tight hug. She had some familiarity to her.

“Thank you  _ so  _ much” 

She accepted his hug, returning it. “Je t’aime beaucoup..” She whispered.

“Eh..what was that?”

She pushed him away. Suddenly, he realized how rude he could have come off. He looked away from her while she frantically apologized.

“L-let’s just get you back to your place! P-pretend that never happened!” She begged. She carried him back to his hotel room.

Familiar… Her eyes looked familiar and her voice sounded familiar. She could speak with a perfect American accent. She stuttered so much like him. He examined her face on the way back. Her long ponytail whipped in the wind, her cheeks were still pink.

His parents had repeated the words to each other countless times ever since they arrived in Paris.

_ “I love you so much.” _

He would have done the same thing, assuming the other person didn’t know what it meant. Reid only knew one person who knew him long enough to develop such feelings, and Sam definitely didn’t feel that way about him.


	5. A Ghost's Cousin

The theater had a new movie out, but the quiet night had other plans. Instead of scarfing popcorn and soda, Kaetlyn had to patrol with Tucker, Sam, and Danny in his ghost form. Danny flew further behind the rest on their bikes Each had their Fenton phones in incase they had to split up. The windows were dark with only the street lamps for a light source. 

It had pained her to come up with a stupid excuse to join the patrol, but the whole group had to regularly search for ghosts. Reid got lucky-ish and couldn’t get out of chores to join them.

Kaetlyn groaned, tightening her grip on the handlebars of her bike, “I miss out on a tour of Paris, but Reid misses out on a night-long patrol?”

“You lived in Paris for a year,” Sam said while driving next to her.

“Besides, tonight’s ghost hunting scene is pretty dull,” Tucker added from the opposite side  _ just  _ as they drove past a ghost with the same color scheme as Danny. Only smaller. And a girl?

Their tires screeched to a stop.

“Unless you count Danny’s long lost ghost cousin.”

“Cousin?!”

Sam and Tucker turned to Kaetlyn, realizing that year in Paris left her without important context. They looked at each other, then back at her.

Tucker's explanation used names she didn’t recognize and words that would only be said in a sci-fi movie. 

“So… they’re not cousins?”

Sam and Tucker sighed. It would take the rest of the night to catch her up. Instead, Sam checked on Danny through their earbuds, who said he’d take over with the clone... Cousin… Ghost-girl. They decided to go eat, but Kaetlyn needed  _ a lot  _ more information. She turned around and sped down the asphalt road where they left Danny.

She could see them flying over the buildings, two black and white-clothed ghosts flying away. Ghosts had a soft pale glow to them. It could be quite mesmerizing at night once you got past the fact that the majority of ghosts out there want to destroy you.

They seemed to be heading to Danny’s house. If so, then the ghost-cousin-girl should be aware that Danny Phantom and Danny Fenton were the same.

Something shiny and metal shot out at them from the ground. It grabbed Danny's leg with what could be a claw-like hand. A third person in black and red joined them in the air, flying on a hoverboard. More science fiction… Amity was supposed to be a supernatural town! 

Kaetlyn pedaled as fast as her legs would allow. They weren’t too far ahead of her.

“I think Lune should come help now!” Lunna urged from her hood.

“I got it!” She shouted back, “Moon rise!”

A flash of white light illuminated the street for a moment, then Lune jumped off of the bike and onto the roofs. The bolted for the third person, reaching the edge of the closest building and leaping at them. She grabbed and hung off of the forked hoverboard that the person flew on, tipping it over and both of them falling with equally terrified screams.

The board returned to retrieve the person, but Lune kept falling. Danny swooped down and caught her just before hitting the road. He landed safely on the ground and let her go, still holding the ghost girl next to her.

“Oh, of course the magical girl had to save the day!” The person in black and red complained from the air. They had a female’s voice. Her suit covered her head and had red-tinted glass over her face. Some rich person must have spent a lot of money to deck her out in sci-fi tech.

“Magical girl?! I’m a superhero!”

“We have to go.” The ghost-girl had a desperate tone. Lune looked between her and the enemy, agreeing to leave. Danny took her arm and made the three of them intangible. They phased into the ground and he flew away to the garage where they kept the wormhole. He couldn’t risk Lune figuring out his identity, after all.

“I think we lost her.” He said as he let go of Lune and the ghost-girl, all of them tangible again. A rusted scent still tainted the air. 

Lune found a wooden box to sit on. She wiped off a thick layer of dust and sneezed as she sat down. The ghost-girl had to rest on the floor. Her skin dripped like wax and her hands had green goo. If she recalled her vocabulary, Danny called the green go “ectoplasm.”

“Mind giving context?” Lune asked Danny.

“That would probably be useful.” He paused to think, “Lune, this is Da _ ni  _ with and ‘I’. Long story short, she’s a failed clone of me and she needs help.”

…?

Lune raised an eyebrow, having trouble finding what to say. “What about that girl that attacked you?”

Dani the ghost-girl answered, “I thought she would help me find Danny, but she only used me to destroy both of us.” She then grunted in pain, trying to keep her skin from dripping. 

Metal clanked and ringed when it hit the ground. Danny was going through everything they had kept hidden in the garage. His shoulders were tense as he searched through their supplies. He gritted his teeth and his eyebrows were furrowed.

Lune turned back to Dani, catching up on the story with her. She explained as much as she could. A rich man named Vlad Masters had created her, wanting to make a clone of Danny. She worked for him at first, but Dani realized he was the villain after Danny helped. She ran away and lived on the streets. Once her body started falling apart, she searched for Danny to get help. The girl with the high-tech gear came to her and used her to hunt both Danny and Dani. They needed to stay away from the ghost hunter while finding a way to keep Dani’s clone body intact.

“Anything else about that person hunting you guys?”

“Her name’s Valerie. Vlad gave her all of her equipment to hunt me. She has a personal vendetta against me.” Danny answered from the ceiling. He hovered in the air on his back. He stared at the ceiling.

Lune leaned back on her box, taking in a deep breath of information. New names, new relationships, new faces. The garage filled with silence. No one spoke. Their minds were filled with too many thoughts to speak. 

She had seen Valerie in a few of her classes. They never talked, but she knew her face. Dark skin and green eyes. Having superpowers must automatically create enemies. Valerie, without a doubt, scoured Amity Park to find them. With all of her ghost-hunting equipment, it would take a lot less time…

A phone rang. They all jumped. Lune took her phone from her pocket. Reid called her. She stood up and walked to the farthest corner from the ghosts and answered.

“Hey! How’s the patrolling going?” He asked.

“Slow and dull. We’re thinking about calling it a night.”

“Sam and Tucker said Danny’s cousin visited, so they went to eat.”

Lune spoke softer, “Y-yeah. Me and Danny decided to stay out a little longer. Just in case.”

The phone didn’t talk. Lune glanced back at the ghosts, who were having a conversation of their own.

“Alright.” Reid finally said, “I just finished cleaning. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Yeah.” Lune hung up, put her phone away, then regrouped.

Danny noticed her and explained the plan, “I think I know a way to help Dani. I keep my eye on the Fentons, a family of ghost hunters.”

“That’s where you got all my ghost hunting gadgets, yeah.”

“They came up with another gadget that I think will help. I’ll take us there, give it to Dani, then we can take care of Valerie.”

Dani stood up, ready to go. Lune nodded in agreement. Danny took both of their arms, turned intangible, and flew out of the garage. They flew over the buildings. Not many people were out. Nights were still chilly and dull, especially on weeknights. School would be over in a few weeks, so maybe summer would have more noise to make up for the boring moments. 

Lune’s wolf ears twitched. Something flew at them through the wind. Valerie.

“Danny! The lef-”

A grappling hook caught Dani’s leg. Electricity ran through and electrocuted the group. They all fell and hit the asphalt hard.

It became hard to breathe. It hurt to move. Valerie picked up Danny and Dani and flew away on her hoverboard. She had no interest in Lune. She thought she was unconscious like the others. 

Lune struggled to push herself up. Valerie had flown away by the stand she could stand. The miraculous gave her hearing, but not the tracking abilities of a wolf. Despite her stomach hurting from the fall, and her legs, and her chest, and face, she bolted keep Valerie in her sight.

She had to stop once Valerie flew out of Amity. Where in the world would she be taking two ghosts? If not to throw back into the ghost zone, then where? She would have destroyed them right on the spot otherwise.

Lune almost fell to the ground, the pain multiplying when she had stopped running. Valerie was after Danny. She used Dani to get to him. Danny had been cloned to make Dani. Vlad Masters cloned Danny to make Dani…

She took out her phone and searched for his name. He owned many wealthy business tycoons and recently owned “Vladco”: a company that made ghost-related devices. He lost possession of it not too long ago. With such a big name, Lune easily found his address in Wisconsin. She put her phone away and ran back to the garage. 

The door rolled up and the fresh air could ventilate the rust smell. She lowered the door just enough so no one could glance to the side and see her messing with the wormhole. After double-checking the address and pushing buttons, she started up the wormhole and silently apologized for the amount of electricity she’d use. At least it would be for a solid reason.

A zap of green light shot out, growing an oval-shaped tear in the old wall. Lune closed the door completely, not risking anyone sneaking in. She stepped through the wormhole and suddenly wished her costume came with warmer clothes. She walked through the treeline. A mansion stood in the distance. It was more of a castle, really. 

It had cone-shaped roofing with several floors and windows varying from tall and slim to T-shaped to rounded to normal rectangles. Green flags decorating some windows complemented the golden roof color and clean stone exterior. The road Lune walked down split and curved into an elegant stone road with skillfully cut shrubbery in the center and bushes evenly spaced around it. 

She peered through the windows, having to jump to reach them. Plenty of lights were on, but no one filled the rooms. Wouldn’t a tycoon have maids, butlers, chefs? A single old man didn’t have time to care for something as large and extravagant as a mansion.

Lune slid down the wall and hurried to the door. A hopeless attempt. Of course Vlad would keep everything locked. No windows were left open. She walked around the mansion, double and triple-checking if there was a way to get in without causing damage. 

Thinking, the lock didn’t have any keypad or identification. Lune ran back to the wormhole and searched the garage for a paperclip. She’s watched enough movies to do this, right? They were accurate on these things.

She ran back and remained cautious. The garage had plenty of old and random things. The paperclips took a couple of minutes but were easy enough to find. It took a short time of trial and error, but the lock clicked and the door creaked open. It  _ shouldn’t  _ be that easy. For reasons, it was.

She softly closed the door and entered a large lobby with green stone walls and golden doorway trimming and stairs. He had a love for a certain football team Lune didn’t know. Her ears didn’t pick up anything. She cautiously walked through doors, entering a living room with a cozy fireplace and tall bookshelves against the walls.

Her phone rang. Lune jumped and dropped the phone when trying to end the call. It hit the floor and answered instead. She picked it up and whispered, “What do you want?!”

“Sorry… Is it a bad time? I was wondering if you finished your patrol yet.” Reid said.

Lune growled, “Why don’t you text instead?” Then sighed, “My bad. Yeah, we finished. I was about to sleep.”

“Oh, okay. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“You said the last time.” Then she hung up, massaging the bridge of her nose. She leaned onto an end table.

“Lune?”

The wolf jumped and knocked over the lamp on the table. She quickly caught it and stared at Danny Phantom and Valerie. They had phased through the walls.

“I thought she was the bad guy…” She said while placing the lamp back, slightly shaken.

“We made a deal and have a temporary truce. Did you find Dani?” Danny asked.

“No.”

“Wait. How did you even get here?” Valerie asked, pointing at Lune.

She tapped her heel while thinking, “Good cardio? It’s not hard to find Vlad’s address either...”

A good enough lie for the ghost hunter.

So a truce… Danny held a vial of green liquid in his hand. It had a lid shaped like a satellite dish. It must be what he referred to when talking about helping Dani. Kaetlyn hadn’t seen the gadget before, so it must be a recent invention.

A ghost phased from the floor. A man with black hair, green skin, and pointed ears and teeth wore a white suit with a matching cape. He must have gone for a Dracula look.

“I don’t want to fight you, Vlad.” Danny said, approaching him, “I just want to save Dani.”

“Vlad?!”

The ghost shot a purple ectoplasm beam similar to Danny’s ability. It pushed Danny into a bookcase and knocked it over him. 

“He didn’t tell me Vlad was a ghost!”

Valerie jumped up, her hoverboard appearing under her feet. Quite some tech. She charged at Vlad, who simply turned intangible. She backed up. The hoverboard had a gun at the bottom and fired spikes that pinned Vlad to the wall. He phased through and disappeared. Valerie Charged through the wall and created a gaping hole. She did the same to the floor. 

Lune ran after her and fell through, landing safely on the ground of a tall basement full of computers. It was held up by rows of large pillars on either side of the room. 

At the end was Dani attached to a machine with metal cuffs surrounded in blue electricity. Vlad had ghost-tech. After using some of the Fenton’s inventions, it’s obvious the cuffs kept her from using any ghost powers.

Vlad walked to the computers and pulled a lever on the wall. More blue electricity engulfed Dani began melting like wax.

“No!”

Lune charged at Vlad. He only laughed.

“You think a girl playing dress-up can stop me?”

She readied her arm to punch him, swinging that punch and Vlad turning intangible. Lune curved and bolted for the lever. He realized this and shot an ectoplasm ray at her. It threw her across the room. Now her head hurt on top of everything else…

Looking up, she saw Danny flying down to try and free Dani while Valerie took care of Vlad. It only took her a strong enough ray gun to do the job.

She got up, her legs almost collapsing on her. Lune hurried back to the lever. Danny got hurt trying to pry the cuff open. He tried his ectoplasm rays on them instead. It didn’t work. 

Lune had her hands on the lever, about to switch it-

“No! Don’t!” Danny shouted, “She’s already deforming! Who knows what would happen!”

“Oh, and ripping her out of the machine while it’s still on is safer?!”

It hit him. Then he looked to be pondering something. Danny took out the green vial and stared at it. He sprayed it on Dani, but nothing worked. Lune quickly flipped the lever and turned off the machine. Dani had already melted away into green goo, filling a metal bucket at the bottom of the machine.

Danny fell on his knees. Lune took a step back. All in one night, she met Dani, she encountered Valerie, and fought Vlad. She met them, she fought them, and she watched one melt away. Her stomach churned. Her vision became blurry. No one spoke, no one moved. The room had become grief.

Lune’s phone rang. She yelled, “I’ll see you tomorrow! _ ”  _ Then hung up. She spun around and used all her strength to keep from throwing her phone on the cold stone ground. She sighed in defeat, crouching on the floor. Just… too much.

“Danny!” A girl’s voice exclaimed. Lune turned and saw Dani hugging him. Whatever spray Danny used, it worked. It had a cruel delay to take effect, but it had worked. She stood up, smiling.

“A little help!” Valerie called out. They brought their attention to Vlad chasing her. Dani quickly launched from the ground and swung a powerful punch at Vlad. It created a hole in the ceiling. He flew at her and she grabbed his cape and swung him into a row of pillars. Then she threw several ectoplasm projectiles that he dodged. His moment of mocking left him wide open for a final punch. He didn’t move from the floor.

Valerie, Danny, and Lune joined Dani. 

“You guys get out of here. I’ll be right behind you.” Danny told the girls. They exchanged looks and were happy to follow orders. Lune took a ride on Valerie’s hoverboard, feeling awkward riding with someone that had shot her down from the sky not long ago.

They left the mansion when Lune finally said, “I guess that ‘cousin’ thing isn’t biological.”

Dani smiled, “We’re not from the same parents, but we’re related by blood. It means we’re cousins!”

Lune spoke over Valerie’s laughing, “Right.”

________________________________________________________

Vlad Masters hovered in the middle of the mess the group of teenagers had created. He landed and started walking around the room, only stopping when a woman’s voice he never heard of speak behind him.

“Vlad Masters. A master of ghost hunting I presume? You have an abundance of fancy technology. I’m a little ‘behind the times’ I believe it goes.”

He couldn’t make out her face, but an oval-shaped tear in space framed her upper body. Only the light from the basement lit outline of her silhouette. He frowned, opening his mouth to question her.

“Before you ask anything, I’ll say I’m someone who also needs Danny Phantom gone. If he finds out what I’m up to, he has the equipment to beat me.”

“What, you’re going to hire me as some servant now?”

She smirked, “No. I’m simply offering an alliance between us. I want to take my homeland back and get rid of everything related to those who wronged me. Once I do that, my power in your world will multiply. I can offer you many things.” She paused, then kept going when he didn’t speak, “More money, more power. ‘Mayor’ is such a weak title. I only ask for you to accompany me in defeating that ghost-boy.”

His lips peeled back into an evil grin at the mention of gifts. “Well, I was already planning to destroy Danny. But what would a child like him be able to do against you?”

She tilted her head, “Well… I  _ am  _ a ghost after all.”

________________________________________________________

Kaetlyn fell back on her mattress. Danny went back home. Valerie had gone somewhere, and Dani ran off to travel. She offered a trip to Paris, but Dani declined, saying she wanted to see some more things in America before moving. Reasonable enough.

She turned to her side, pulling the blankets over her. Lunna had filled up and slept away the calories on her personal pillow. Did kwami’s gain weight? Can they eat things their respective animals can’t? Lunna had never eaten a salad, but could she? Did she just prefer jerky instead?

The phone buzzed on the shelf of her bed. Kaetlyn reached out and checked the notification, instantly regretting it when the light stung her pupils. After squinting, she could read Reid’s text.

_ “Goodnight. Hope you’re okay.” _

She sighed and texted back,  _ “Night.”  _ Then turned over and went to sleep.


	6. Leaving the Living

People always stuffed the mall on weekends. Mainly those who couldn’t visit due to school. Most of them were sitting in the food court, and a good amount stayed even after eating to laugh and scroll through social media. The group had agreed to meet up later to eat after tables cleared up some.

Sam and Tucker left to look at games while Danny set for whatever space-related things he could find. Kaetlyn and Reid walked around a mix of stores that catered to their own interests, currently in a fitness store. Large prints of young men and women in sports outfits and uniforms were on the wall. There were mannequins of women’s workout outfits and some male mannequins in tank tops with numbers and team colors on them. Whatever they meant.

With everyone eating, not as many people were inside, but there were enough to overpower the quiet and upbeat music from the speakers, which wasn’t a difficult thing to accomplish.

“Your timing can be... inconvenient,” Kaetlyn said from the other side of the shelves in the middle of the store. 

Reid stayed silent, flipping through the thin hoodies built for slightly cooler temperatures.

“You  _ need  _ to pick better times to call people.”

“How am I supposed to know when you’re free?” He kept his eyes on the stacks of folded clothes.

“At least text first!”

He paused for a moment, “I-I’ll try to keep that in mind.”

Kaetlyn shot him a disbelieving glare, sipping on her lemonade from a pretzel stand they had passed by. Reid looked up and saw this.

“But I prefer calling you.”

She sighed, shifting her weight, “Please, send a text to see if I can talk before calling?”

“Promise” He nodded. He took a few more seconds to find the shirt he wanted in his size.

“Finally.”

They walked to the cash register and bought it. Kaetlyn checked the time on her phone. Typical lunchtime would end soon. She turned to Reid as they exited the store and suggested to regroup. After sending a text in their group chat, the group all agreed to the idea. The couple headed to the food court. Reid had to steer Kaetlyn away from any stores relevant to the shows and movies she’s watched.

When they arrived, only Danny had made it before them. He waved at them from an empty table and they joined. Windows made up the walls around them with only natural light filling the food court. The lights would only be turned on when it came dark enough. They were near the entrance of the mall; Many people came and went through the glass doors.

Danny and Reid showed each other what they had bought. Danny had books on space and fun facts about previous astronauts and spaceships. Reid listened to him read some of the more interesting things he found when scanning through the books. Reid obviously loved sports, especially basketball, but he never spoke enthusiastically about it. He always sat and listened to others’ interests. Kaetlyn always found it somewhat annoying… 

She scrolled through the selections of TV on one of her apps, planning out how to have time to watch the ones at the tops of her watch list as soon as possible. A notification popped up on the top of her screen. A headline in English read “A FLYING MAN CHASES A GHOST” They could have picked a better phrase for a “flying man”. She tapped the notification and it brought her to a video with a short article underneath. She immediately recognized the eagle and ghost on the video.

“I’ll have to leave early, guys. Sorry…” Kaetlyn had an uneasy voice. Danny asked why. She stuttered some excuse about her parents and ran off. She walked out of the main entrance, scanning the article for any information on where they could be. The video had been recorded by some random person who happened to spot them.

“Coming in!” A man shouted from above. Kaetlyn looked up and Graves charged at her. She jumped back, chills shooting across her body and he phased through her body. She froze.

“That is… That is sick and wrong.”

Graves cackled from the air, flipping backward. He fixed himself upright when spotting Aquila flying at him from behind. He taunted Aquila, bolting off and phasing through the wall of the mall at the last second. Aquila flapped his wings to push him back before he collided into the stone. The sudden and powerful gust of wind almost knocked Kaetlyn back. He saw her, his eyes shot open.

“Aren’t you going to chase him?” Kaetlyn instinctively asked in French, slightly confused.

He stumbled over his words, eventually giving up and said, “Oui.” then statically took off.

Looking around, the plaza had evacuated itself at the sight of the hero. Amity knew Lune, but not much of any other superheroes. They had Danny Phantom fight ghosts and Lune fight Akumas. Sometimes they would help each other.

She hurried to the wall facing away from the parking lot, Lunna sitting on her shoulder just before transforming. Lune leaped onto the roof of the mall and skimmed the sky for Aquila. She spotted a small bronze dot and followed it, calling out its name.

Aquila finally heard her and flew lower to talk. “How did you get here so fast?”

“How did you?”

“I saw the ghost, chased him. He flew through this portal I guess? We ended up here.”

They hadn’t used the wormhole for days now. That woman.

“Did you go the same way?” Aquila asked, “You came back after helping that ‘important’ person. I thought you would stay.”

Ladybug must have told him her lie for leaving Paris in the first place. “Eh- Yeah! I saw you chasing Graves and thought I should help. Didn’t think I’d end up back so soon.”

He made no visual cues to suggest he understood. His eagle eyes kept scanning the area, searching for the ghost. Lune listened for anything that screamed “Ghost!”It turned out to be a terrified man running for his life. Others copied his actions. The heroes hurried the opposite way and found Graves scratching his head with his back to them. He stood in the middle of the sidewalk. He turned around and acted pleasantly surprised they found him.

“‘Ey! Wondering if y'all knew where the quieter part of town was. All these living folk make too much noise. Could use some peace and quiet.” He hovered in the air, not controlling how he spun or where and floated off to.

Lune took a step towards him, reaching behind her to grab nothing.  _ “I forgot the thermos!”  _ she hissed. Aquila stepped in front of her, readying his arrow.

“This is the last time I’ll remind ya that those things don’t work.” Then it clicked. He spun around to see what Aquila aimed for. An ectoplasmic green blast fired from the sky and shot him down. Danny Phantom landed in front of the heroes.

“Qui est-ce?” Aquila asked.

While Danny and Graves through punches, Lune explained to him in French who Danny was in the eyes of Amity.

“So… Like Ladybug.”

Kaetlyn snorted at the image of Danny in Ladybug’s costume, then nodded, “Yeah, basically.”

Danny’s last punch threw Graves halfway across the road and skidding to the superheroes' feet. He rubbed his jaw as he stood up. He looked to the superheroes, then to Danny, then the heroes, Danny. He phased into the ground and left. Danny didn’t chase him.

“I’ll let you know where I find him.”

Lune stopped him with a shout, then continued, “Last time I saw him, he was in Paris. He didn’t use our wormhole to get here. Something’s up.”

“What do you think it is?”

“He must be working with someone that can easily go anywhere. Someone that helps him run away too.”

Something made him react. As if he remembered something so important he couldn’t believe he forgot.

“Quoi est aller sur?” Aquila asked, bringing Danny out of it. Lune sighed and began alternating between English and French to catch both teenagers up on who each other were, how she knew them, and what they had to do about Graves. It quickly occurred to her that she would have to go through the same process several times over.

“I’ll use my thermos. We’ll just have to corner him.” Danny said, his Fenton thermos already in hand. Of course he would carry everywhere.

Lune translated. Aquila commented, “So how do we corner him?” She translated again. 

First, they needed to find him. As miraculous superheroes, the phones in their weapons automatically saved each active hero's number. Lune didn’t have a number since breaking her miraculous and had to use a separate one from Kaetlyn. Aquila, strangely, never had any way to contact other heroes. The Fenton phones were back home so no one could communicate with each other.

The trio managed to work something out and split up. Danny would fly around, keeping an eye out or following his ghost sense. Aquila would do the same, minus Danny’s unique ability. Lune kept listening for anything that stood out. Maybe this time they could get rid of Michael Graves.

* * *

He flew through the roads and buildings casually, enjoying the chaos he caused when he happened to phase through the family dining room for lunch. The sun greeted him with blinding light. It’s been some time since he’s wandered around during the day, but he had been given a task.

Garage. He needed to find a garage. An old one. One that was abandoned. It hadn’t been used for a long time until a group of ghost-hunting teenagers showed up. His boss had some way of getting information like this. That information didn’t say where in Amity. They only told of its existence. He started with places in town not many people visited. That’s where the most abandoned or forgotten things would be.

He found a deserted road lined up with dark buildings. A few windows had light. He turned invisible and checked each forgotten building. Instead, one attached to a house, a single, tall storage garage caught his eye. He flew down and landed on the pavement. The rusted metal door had a lock. He walked through the door, thankful ghosts couldn’t sneeze. It would be all he could do with the dust and dirt contaminating the room. 

Wooden boxes hid the trash stuffed in the corners. The lightbulb on the ceiling had broken, but there were no shards left on the ground. There were no windows either. A ghost’s eye could still adjust to lighting. Nothing moved, nothing breathed.

To the side of the room, behind stacks of more boxes, was a tarp. He neared it and pushed the boxes. Something big and electrical hid underneath. Wires slithered out from under the tarp.

He threw off the tarp and revealed a large machine with buttons and dials. On top had a large satellite dish. Three larger dials marked “Latitude” and “Longitude” and “Altitude” sat next to each other. Then he noticed the map duct-taped to the wall in front of him. The dials were set to the garage’s coordinates. It’s been some time since he read a map, but he took a shot at changing the coordinates to somewhere in Paris. It had to be somewhere no one would easily notice…

With coordinates set, he pressed the dull button next to the main three dials. The machine hummed and rattled. The button glowed with a bright green. The same green gathered at the point of the satellite dish and shot out and landed on the stone wall. The light grew into an oval big enough for a grown human to walk through. He slowly walked to the oval, poking his head out. 

His shoulders down were still in an old garage in Amity Park, but his head could see the towering buildings had windows illuminate the evening. The distant jumble of honking vehicles and growling of motor engines filled his ears. Pedestrians passed by the oval. Their heads took notice of the small sliver between two buildings. He was well hidden. This would work.

He leaned out of the portal and searched for the button that would turn the machine off. The portal closed in on itself and diminished to nothing. The satellite stopped shooting light. The machine stopped humming and rattling. The garage fell dark again.

Now he had to find what made the machine work. The people who built it had access to ghost-tech and some talent. They had a small door that could be easily swung open to look inside. Colorful wires, lights, and strange pieces of metal stuffed the machine. He moved the wires around and found an interesting hunk of metal that glowed green from a line of glass on its side. Cables were plugged into it. He unplugged it and took it out of the machine. It would stay in his pants pocket until finishing his job.

A ghost-boy flew through the door and fired an ectoplasmic beam at him. He flew into the back wall of the garage. The door lifted open and two superheroes ran inside. Sunlight blinded him for a moment.

His body dispersed into smoke and filled the garage. Some spilled out of the open door. The three started coughing. He alternated between his opponents to kick them, having to turn portions of his body solid to do so. The bird fell over and the ghost was jumpy. The wolf’s fake animal ears twitched when he approached from behind. She spun around and punched his cheek with a powerful blow. He fell to the ground hard and gathered all the smoke back to his body.

The ghost charged at him and threw a flurry of punches. Intangibility didn’t work with other ghosts. Each punch left a throbbing pain, but nothing he hadn’t experienced. He dodged a few attacks and delivered his own. Both ghosts would have aching bruises if they were alive.

The bird said something in French he didn’t have time to roughly translate. The bird plucked off his blade-like bronze feathers and shot them onto the wall leading to the ghosts. They created slim platforms for the wolf to jump on and touch the ceiling. She leaped off the last one and pushed herself from the ceiling to hit him with her feet.

He shoved the ghost away and turned intangible. The wolf fell through his body and he flew out of the garage through the open door. He hovered near the other end of the street, adrenalized. The enemy didn’t move. He didn’t move. The fight needed to end quickly, but not suspiciously quickly. A little longer and he could run.

The bird plucked off two more sharp feathers and tossed them to the wolf. She caught one in each hand then rushed towards him. He felt lucky he was dead. The wolf leaped up and swung a feather across. He instinctively retracted. They couldn’t drain his energy, but they still stung.

He flew higher and landed on the roof. The wolf followed him and swung her blade again. He turned to dodge and she threw her arm back to stab him. She left no wounds, but the sharp feeling wouldn’t leave his shoulder. She swung her blades again. He ducked and kicked her legs from under her. She hit the ground and blades clanked onto the pavement when she lost grip.

Something uppercut his jaw hard enough to throw him into the air. The ghost-boy kept up with his speed, clutched his shoulders, and turned them intangible before shoving him through the lines of abandoned buildings. They turned tangible right before a corner on the road and left a trail of dirt and broken asphalt. He turned into smoke and escaped the ghost boy's grip.

The wolf caught up to them soon enough. She stood on one of the roofs. He held the metal piece from the machine tightly in his pocket. A little longer would do. More time. A little more. There wasn’t that much more to waste.

She jumped down from the roof and flung one blade at him. He leaned back and the projectile missed, planting into the stone of the building behind him. He turned back and a high kick barely missed his nose. He grabbed the wolf’s ankle and threw her down the road. The ghost caught her and placed her safely on her feet.

He stared at them, eyebrows burrowed. He tightened his grip on the metal piece. They charged at him. The ghost flew and the wolf ran. He slid to dodge the ghost then ducked to dodge the wolf. A jump, a block, a kick, another kick, a dodge. The two adversaries jumped around his view. Their figures started to blend together.

His feet turned into a ghost tail and he bolted away. A sharp pain shot through his chest. He slowed to look behind him. A bronze feather. The same pain spread through his arm. He stopped and looked around. From above, the bird flew in the sky.

More arrows fell from his bow. He jumped back and around and over to avoid them. The arrows stopped suddenly. The bird slowly lowered himself onto the road. He heard the scuff of someone's shoe behind him. He turned around and saw the ghost pointing the thermos at him. He held his hands in mock surrender.

“Ya got me. Congrats.”

The ghost pressed a button and he was sucked into the thermos. The wolf and bird ran towards the ghost.

“Did- Did we actually catch him?” The wolf asked.

The ghost held out his thermos, saying, “Yeah, Lune. We did. Why?”

She cocked her head slightly.

“Was it hard to catch him when you saw him in Paris?”

“Eh- he can slip away easily…” 

The bird walked up to them, asking a question in French.

“Oh, Aquila.” Lune mumbled to herself before speaking louder in French, “Pound it! We got Graves!”

He stared at her fist, taking his time to and tap her knuckles with his own. He wore no excited expression like Lune or exchanged a high-five with the ghost-boy Amity called “Danny Phantom.” Things were… quieter… Amity was still a city, but nothing like home.

“We should go home now.” He told Lune. She paused for a moment, halves of words coming out. Then she paused again.

“I still have a few things to do. I’ll meet up with you later.” She finally said, then called Danny in English. They left Aquila on the road. How has Amity not gone broke after so many ghost attacks? Ladybug to repair everything an Akuma caused, but construction workers would have to be paid to repair the road. This was probably the most minimal amount of damage a fight has left.

Aquila took off, flying back to where he roughly remembered arriving in Amity. He stopped halfway to his destination when it hit him. He almost stopped flying at the realization. He didn’t know how to return home.

* * *

He let the Ghost Zone carry him wherever while he examined the machine part he stole. It still glowed a ghostly green. The Ghost Zone shared the same color. It was like a void no too different from the woman’s “home.” Only his “home” had doors and rock floating around. Each door led to a ghost’s own little place. His door was nothing unique or eye-catching. It would be boring for a while. Maybe he could return to Earth after that woman got what she wanted. She might grant his wish, she might not. A different ghost granted wishes. Maybe he could find her.

Boredom hitting him immediately, he took control of his direction and found a rock simply floating around. He kept flipping the part to guess its front side. He pointed at the rock and pressed the small button he found. Green light zapped from the part and onto the rock. It grew into a small circle. Then he realized the tube of light draining from the metal. He quickly pressed the button again. He stared at the portal, then at the machine part in his hand. It would have to be used sparingly.


	7. The Box King

Days at Casper High grew slower and slower. Or maybe the lives of its students became faster. A small number of students had to fight ghosts. Akumas attacked Paris more commonly than Amity, so it let most of them rest. Lune couldn't make it to fight every villain, but she would make an effort. 

She hadn't had to worry much since returning Graves to the ghost zone. He managed to snatch an important part of the wormhole, however. For some extremely convenient reason, Danny's parents had a spare. They got the wormhole running again and Aquila went home before the following night. He seemed to be the same age as the rest of Paris' superheroes. He might have had to get home before his family started worrying. Kaetlyn's parents were worried about their daughter simply crossing paths with a ghost sighting. 

Reid had a more extreme reaction. He asked Danny about the whole story. Kaetlyn came up with an excuse and no one questioned her further. Reid still didn’t seem satisfied with her response, but he didn’t pry.

She did, however, have some questions for Valerie Gray; The girl that attacked Dani and Danny then quickly teamed up to defeat a common enemy. She sat in the row ahead of Kaetlyn, who kept glancing her way as if Valerie would put on the red ghost hunting suit she owned and start firing her weaponry. Knowing how much ghost hunting technology she had was worrisome.

Kaetlyn’s foot tapped from under the desk. She finally had some time and remembered to ask Danny about Dani. The ghost girl was a clone of Danny. Vlad Plasmius was Danny's arch-enemy that tried to clone him several times over. Dani was the closest Vlad got to success. After a bit of familial bonding with Danny, Dani ran away from Vlad and lived on her own. Her body being a failed DNA experiment led to her having to come back for help before she melted away. Then Lune jumped into the middle of a story full of new enemies.

Danny tapped on Kaetlyn's shoulder. She turned away from Valerie and to him. Suddenly, she had a horrible taste in her mouth. She moved her hand away and saw she had been gnawing on the pencil eraser. She looked at Danny and gave a shrug and nervous smile. He went with it and returned to pretending to take notes while she spat out eraser shavings.

After a few minutes, the bell finally rang. Kaetlyn huffed and sunk into her chair while the rest of the class packed their things and hurried to their next period. Danny stood to the side and Tucker from behind her, waiting.

"Gah..." Kaetlyn groaned before getting up.

"If this is about the wormhole situation, don't worry! We got a spare piece." Tucker tried reassuring while Kaetlyn threw her textbook and journal into her backpack.

"No. Yes?" Kaetlyn swung her backpack over her shoulders, "I wanted a normal day at the-" She paused on her way out the door. The guys stopped behind her. "The, the, the..." She began stammering.

"The mall?" Danny finished. 

"Yes! Thank you." Kaetlyn rubbed her eyes as the group walked down the hall. Translating so much during their fight with Graves made her bilingual situation worse than normal. 

They had to part ways and said simple goodbyes. The crowd pushed Kaetlyn to the wall as she tried to squeeze around the corner of the hall. Her film class would leave her with no friends. Good. She needed some solitude.

Someone grabbed her arm and pulled her through the heavy traffic of students. It was Reid. She really didn't need to see him right now... 

He let go of her once they reached a calmer path to her class. He smiled with his hands in his pockets and walked slower to match her drowsy pace. His smile dwindled when noticing her expression.

"Wh-What's wrong?" He asked.

She sighed, "Nothing. Just a normal high school student trying to graduate."

Silence kept them company, but Reid waved it away and told it to join someone else. "Well," He began, "I think a quick run to that old store you love so much could help. I can't believe you still have a DVD player." He muttered the last part and smiled to himself. He saw Kaetlyn's flat look and visibly lost all confidence. He turned away from her and stared at the ground.

"Reid..."

"I-" He paused doubtfully, "I thought you'd be happy to see me. That's all."

Kaetlyn froze for a moment. Her eyebrows creased. She continued forward as her mind wondered about so many things. Lately, she hasn't been happy to see Reid. He would keep texting and ask the same questions of worry for her. She couldn't go a day without him bothering her. 

"I'll see you later," Kaetlyn said and hurried to class. She made sure Reid didn't have time to reason with her.

________________________________________________________

Returning to the ghost zone had to be one of Grave's worse decisions. The afterlife had nothing fun to do. It was all a void. But at least it had more than a dark expansion of nothingness that the woman lived in.

Graves vigorously ruffled his hair in anger. Now it affected his minds. He took out the metal part from his pocket and examined it. If the woman kept her promise, he would return to the living soon. She never even said her name. And he never paid attention in history. 

Something rammed into Graves. Both were propelled backward from the impact. Rubbing his head, he saw a short and wider ghost wearing gray overalls, beanie, and gloves.

"Hey!" Graves shouted, "Watch it!"

"You watch it!" The man retorted, "For I am The Box Ghost! Master of all cubic containers!"

Graves grumbled. He couldn’t have run into something inanimate? Then it hit him. He flew to The Box Ghost and rested his arm on the man's shoulder. "Hey, do you happen to know a ghost? Goes by the name 'Danny Phantom?'"

"I have! He's tried keeping me in his cylindrical contraption, but they can not confine The B-"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah." Graves waved away the man’s words, "Look, I got this little contraption here that will take you to Paris." He showed off the stolen machine piece, "There's plenty of more people. Plenty of more boxes. That ghost kid's bound to show up and you can finally take him down."

The Box Ghost blabbered on nonsense. While he did so, Graves glided over and pointed the piece at a nearby floating rock. He pushed a button and it zapped a beam of light. The light grew into a hole into the human world with the Eiffel Tower in the distance.

"Yes! Time to show the wrath of  _ The Box Ghost! _ I shall take over all of Paris with the power of wood and cardboard! And The ghost hero 'Danny Phantom' will never be able to stop me- Ahh!"

Graved kicked him through the wormhole and immediately closed the portal. He rolled his eyes and glided over to sit on the smooth top of the rock. Talking to people was a tough job.

  
  


________________________________________________________

The phone rang out for the eighth time. When it went to voicemail, Lune hung up and called again. She had her thermos at her side and earbuds in her ears. She wore her specter deflector belt around her waist too. She paced the garage. If Danny didn’t answer she would have to leave without him. And it’s  _ extremely  _ difficult to fight a ghost without some fancy tech or being a ghost yourself.

Voicemail again. Lune hung up and called for the tenth time. She prepared the wormhole and turned it on. At least they didn’t have an electricity bill to pay, but they would have to choose future battles if they didn’t want whatever electricity company that powered the place to have suspicions.

Voicemail.  _ Again.  _ Lune growled and slammed her fist onto one of the nearby boxes. She put her phone away. The wormhole finished. She would have to explain  _ a lot  _ to Ladybug and Chat.

Danny Phantom phased through the locked garage door before Lune hopped through the portal. He began to apologize and give excuses. 

“Forget it! We need to hurry!” Lune cut him off and ran through the portal. She leaped onto the roof of the nearest building and took out her phone. The video showed The Box Ghost rambling on in third person as usual. The people in the video screamed and ran away.

Danny stood beside her, paying attention to his ghost sense. Lune braced herself. On the video, while The Box Ghost levitated boxes from the Dupain-Cheng’s bakery, an Akuma fluttered in and phased into one of his gloves. A moth-shaped outline appeared over his eyes. Hawk Moth got to him. Black and purple bubbled around him and transformed him into a larger, blocky replica of a human. Each section of his body became a different size and shape of a box.

The Akumatized Box Ghost crashed through the ceiling, taking all of the bakery’s boxes with him. The person recording, Alya, fell backward and the video cut off. Lune rewound to the point of Akumatization and played it frame-by-frame for any hint of which direction The Box Ghost could have flown off to.

Danny leaned over her shoulder, watching the video. He asked, “If The Box Ghost’s only power is to control boxes, won’t he find a place with lots of them?”

“Yes, but there’s plenty of places with boxes.”

“Do you know a place with the most boxes?”

Lune lowered her phone as she thought. There weren’t many places she visited that she could say had the  _ most  _ boxes in the building. It would take some serious searching on the internet to see if anyone has counted all of the boxes in Paris.

“Actually,” Lune began, “I have an  _ idea.”  _ It may or may not be right, but it might be the best guess they had.

Lune led the way. Danny seemed sidetracked from the new sights and sounds. She couldn’t recall her friends or herself leaving Amity very often. Their family that lived out of town had homes in equally quieter places than Paris.

“It’s The Box Ghost. Should you be this uptight?” Danny asked, “He’s not a challenge.”

“It doesn’t matter if it’s him or Skulker! Graves stole an important part from the machine and can now let as many ghosts into Paris as he wants!” Lune yelled, “And who knows where else!”

“Yeah... I guess you gotta point.” 

They didn’t speak for the rest of the way. Lune stopped at an old storage warehouse. She assumed the lights would have burnt out, but they still lit up the building since her last visit. Shadows that could punch back suddenly felt easier than fending off a massive swarm of cardboard boxes. 

“Where would we start looking?” Danny asked.

In the distance, a deeper pitched voice echoed, “The fools! They’ll never find me, The Box King!”

Lune and Danny exchanged flat looks. He still made their job easy. With a sigh, they followed Box King’s voice to one of the aisles of the warehouse. He had grown bigger with more boxes making up his body.

“You distract?” Lune asked.

“And you catch him!” Danny launched off of the ground and began firing ghost rays at Box King. The beams burned holes into the cardboard, but the Akuma collected more surrounding him to cover the wounds. Waiting for supply to run out would take too long. 

Lune leaped onto the top of the shelves and ran to be behind Box King. She kneeled and aimed with the thermos, waiting for Danny to get out of the shot. 

He saw she was ready and swerved out of the way. Box King’s large arm swung around to swat him, but missed and instead hit the shelves Lune stood on. She screamed as she fell. Box King caught Danny with his other hand.

Before she could hit the concrete ground, a black blur caught her and rolled away from the falling boxes. Lune sat up and saw Chat lying beside her. She stood then helped him up.

“Where’s Ladybug?” He asked as he scanned the area for her.

“She hasn’t come yet.” Lune answered, “I can’t explain everything so you’ll have to go with it. I have a friend from America helping us and he’s fighting Box King right now.”

“A little help, Lune!” Danny’s voice called out as if to verify her claim.

“Well, we’ll just have to hold out until Ladybug can get here.” Chat then took his metal staff and extended it to be above the shelves. 

“Hey! Box King!” He shouted and waved. The Akuma turned his attention to Chat. 

Lune snuck from behind the shelf that didn’t cause a domino effect and slipped through a gap between some boxes. Danny squirmed to escape Box King’s grasp. Lune caught his attention and motioned to tell him she would help.

She looked around. There were only cardboard boxes taped shut. The specter deflector’s belt buckle had a sharp part that clipped the buckle together. She found a decently sized box and began to cut it open. She could cover Box King’s head, free Danny, and take his glove. Then they could contain him and wait for Ladybug to de-evilize the Akuma. Easy!

Box King roared in fury. Chat now fought him. He swatted incoming boxes away with his staff and jumped away from his fist. Lune quickly finished cutting and tipped the box over to empty its contents. She took the box and jumped onto the top of the shelf.

“Chat Noir!” She shouted before jumping off of the shelf. It began to teeter. Chat threw his staff and it caught the shelf like a support beam. He hurried to stand it back up. Meanwhile, Lune threw the box over Box King’s wooden-box head and struggled to keep it on.

Box King thrashed about, releasing Danny in the process. Lune clung tightly to the box while Box King reached to take it off. She kept turning his head to steer him off course.

“Get his glove!” She shouted.

“Which glove?!” Danny screamed back.

“Uh…” She trailed off, “A-Anyone!”

Danny flew to one of Box King’s flailing hands. He took the fingers of the large glove and pulled it off of his arm. The boxes making up the arm crashed to the ground. Danny ripped it in half. Nothing happened.

“What?” Lune asked herself. 

Box King tripped over the metal beams of the shelf he knocked over and fell to the ground. Lune leaped off and crashed into a pile of boxes. She helped herself up and dusted herself off.

Chat grouped with Danny and tried conversing. Lune joined them to clear things up. She translated and gave each a little background on how she met the other. She struggled and had to give up. 

“Just-” She sighed in French, “Danny and Chat, you two are teammates. We need to stop Box King.” Then she roughly repeated in English, “That’s Chat Noir. We need to beat the bad guy.”

Sure there’s been a few embarrassing moments, but she never had to struggle so much to say a few sentences in the right language. 

Box King started to stand up. Each hero braced themselves. Boxes all around glowed with green light and lift from the ground. He turned back and glared at them. He cast his one arm out and the swarm of boxes charged at the heroes.

Lune jumped in front of Danny and Chat. “Midnight Howl!” Lune yelled. The howl echoed throughout the building with enough force to push back the boxes. Box King covered his cardboard-box ear with his hand, shouting in pain.

The boxes fell to the ground without him controlling them. The guys thanked and praised her for a short time before returning to their jobs.

Box King charged at them, making the ground shake with his wooden-box feet. Before he could swing a punch, a yoyo wrapped around his wrist and pulled his fist into his face. Ladybug swooped in front of the group.

“Ladybug!” Chat’s face lit up. Lune tried to smile. He truly loved her. Kaetlyn can’t recall being that excited to see Reid.

“Sorry for the wait,” Ladybug apologized, “I had trouble finding the Akuma, but that howl told me exactly where he was.”

Lune then introduced Danny, “He’s from America and can help fight Box King.”

Ladybug nodded. Then she cast Lucky Charm and a roll of boxing tape in a spotted dispenser fell into her hands.

Danny wore a confused look. Lune simply said, “This is normal,” and promised to explain more when returning to Amity.

“What will we do, M’lady? Tape together a giant wrecking ball?” Chat Noir asked.

Ladybug looked around, glimpsing at Box King, her tape, Chat’s hand, and the boxes surrounding them.

“Lune, Danny, help me with these.” Ladybug told them as she gathered some boxes. Lune quickly translated and they helped tear and fold cardboard while Ladybug taped parts together. By the end, they had a cardboard boat.

Ladybug told Chat to stand in the front. Lune and Danny would push the boat to securely glide across the floor. Ladybug told them to aim for Box King’s glove before zipping off somewhere to fulfill her part in the plan.

In English, Lune counted, “One, two, three!” 

Danny and Lune pushed the boat on either side. Chat Noir activated his Cataclysm and kept his hand in the air. Box King, realizing their target, began levitating and throwing boxes at them.

“Huh,” Danny spoke.

“What?” Lune asked.

“He can’t control the boat because it’s not in the shape of a box.”

Lune glanced between their boat and the enemy. It had a flat bottom with a tall, pointed front for Chat and the others to hide behind if needed. 

They kept running, but a box hit the front at an angle. It swerved them off course with being caught off guard. Lune and Danny straightened the boat quickly enough, thankfully.

“Can you steer this thing yourself?” Danny asked Lune, who nodded in response. 

Lune jumped behind the boat as Danny flew off to deflect future projectiles. She clutched onto the rim surrounding the boat and pushed forward. They were close.

“Ready Chat?” She asked him.

“Yep! Let’s do this!”

Lune ran faster. Box King turned around and ran away, but Ladybug threw her yoyo from her hidden spot and wrapped his feet together. He fell over with a mighty  _ boom!  _ And his hand hit the ground.

As they passed by him, Chat held out his arm and touched Box King’s glove. Lune slowed down and watched the glove crumble into dust and the Akuma flutter away. 

Ladybug caught it and de-evilized it. She took the tape and threw it into the air so the swarm of ladybugs could prop the fallen shelves back and repair and return the boxes to their original spots. The boat disappeared and Box King shrunk down into The Box Ghost

“A ghost?” Ladybug asked. Chat stared at The Box Ghost in bewilderment.

He got up and hovered high above the floor, shouting his usual, “You may have defeated The Box King with your  _ round  _ tape, but you can  _ never  _ defeat  _ The Box Ghost!” _

Lune pressed the button on her thermos and sucked him up. She and Danny casually high-fived.

“We’ll be off now. Thanks for the help.” Lune said to Chat and Ladybug. They smiled and returned the favor with their signature “Pound it!”

Lune waved goodbye to them and joined Danny. He picked her up and flew her back to the portal home.

________________________________________________________

Kaetlyn sat on her bed, reading the Ladyblog to see what Alya could find for The Box King. She managed to get a quick interview with Chat since he used his ability last. He didn’t mention the ghost part, which was smart.

“I didn’t know ghosts could be akumatized,” Lunna commented from her little cushion. She stuffed the rest of her slice of jerky in her mouth.

“I guess they can.” Kaetlyn replied, “Maybe being a wandering spirit has something to do with it.”

They smiled at each other. It felt nice to have some calm moments.

Kaetlyn’s phone rang. The contact read  _ “Reid”  _ with a green and red button beneath. She could answer, decline, or wait for it to ring out. Lune hated her calls to Danny ringing out.

She stared at the answer button. She left him abruptly at school and hadn’t seen him for the rest of the day. 

Hesitantly, she reached out for the green answer button. It rang again, and again. Before the next ring, Kaetlyn pressed the red decline button.


	8. Wax Attack

When she woke up, she ignored his texts. When she arrived at school, she didn’t greet him. When he walked by in the halls, she hid in the crowd. When he saw her walk in, she chose the seat furthest away from him. She ate a packed lunch in the bathrooms, she took a different route home, she let her calls from him ring out.

She shouldn’t. She should be laughing with him or walking around the old movie store with him standing beside her. But she watched her parents and their relationship. How Arden squealed like a fangirl seeing a celebrity crush on screen. How Xack had acted when she first met him at the park. 

_ They  _ had genuine feelings. Whether they admired their crush’s looks when they appeared on TV, talked to themselves in the mirror to figure out how to confess, or simply being next to each other, there was  _ some  _ attraction.

But she mistook liking him for  _ loving  _ him. When she realized it, she couldn’t face him in shame. Because  _ he  _ loved  _ her.  _

* * *

Boring elevator music softly played as Xack waited. He had a bag of food in one hand and scrolled through his phone in the other. No videos or articles had anything on new Akumas. He didn't feel like fighting any. 

There was a video about some strange ghost being akumatized. He didn't watch it until the next day, so the other heroes had taken care of it. Ghosts seem to become more common in Paris. The city hasn't figured out what they were yet, luckily. The first Akuma to appear in Paris caused enough chaos.

The elevator dinged and the metal doors slid open. Xack kept his eyes on his phone as he walked out and through the doors of a workshop. The blue floor had paint splatters. The bottom floor had shelves and tables of colors, wax model parts, and cloth. The open loft had desks and mannequins on the top floor. Looking around, no one else occupied the room.

"Theo!" Xack called out. With no response, he set the bag on the closest white table and went upstairs to sit in one of the desk chairs. He closed his current app and opened his messages. He didn't have to scroll down to look at all of his contacts. Arden was his most recent. She hadn't texted anything since Friday.

Someone walked into the room from a back door. He saw the bag and looked around for the person who delivered it.

"Xack, glad to see you stuck around." He said. He was a few years older than Xack with bronze skin and brown hair tied into a neat bun. He opened the bag and sifted through the napkins and utensils to find his food.

Xack shrugged, opening a game on his phone as he spoke, "My Dad wanted me to visit you for once. I got hungry and figured you would have skipped lunch."

Theo took a bite of some fries, nodding, "Oh, Adrien Agreste is coming over. I need a wax replica of his arm. Someone stole it from his model in the museum."

"Then I'll be off." Xack stood up and hurried out of the door. Theo told him goodbye, not expecting a response. He didn't get one. 

The elevator dinged and Xack hurried around the corner. The group didn't notice him. Adrien the famous model passed him, then the lady who worked at the museum, a little girl, then three people from Kaetlyn's old class. One girl had black pigtails, the other wore glasses with medium length brown hair, and the guy wore a baseball cap and glasses. When they entered the workshop, Xack slipped into the elevator and pressed the button to the first floor.

The same boring music played during his wait. He opened the same game on his phone and started playing. Beneath his long sleeves peeked out golden arm cuffs. Every time, he would recall Lune's baffled face when he didn't know what a "kwami" was. There was no countdown after using his ability, it didn't change its appearance when Aquila left. He found them at his computer desk with a paper with _ "Feathers fly!" _ written on it. 

A ding finally sounded and the doors slid open. Xack hurried out and approached the front door. He glanced up from his phone at the right moment to see a purple moth fluttering to him. He jumped back as it flew by. 

Ladybug and Chat could handle it, so he kept going, but he stopped again. Nothing guaranteed the Akuma would leave the museum and show itself to public eyes. They could after the few people in the museum. 

Xack sighed and whispered, “Feathers fly.”

He ran up the stairs and took off when he fully transformed. He passed by a room dedicated to the villain Ladybug and Chat Noir had faced. The circular room had wax models of multiple villains in varying poses lined against the wall. A replica of Ladybug and Chat stood in the center. 

The boy with the hat and girl with glasses stood frozen in the walkway. The Bubbler -A villain dressed in primary colors with a bubble wand for a weapon- walked around the room. Lady Wifi -A villain in black and white spandex with a phone to freeze, record, and unfreeze anything that moves- walked around with them. None of them spoke or give any facial expression. It was as if they weren't truly alive.

A little girl with pigtails flew in wearing a black dress and mash. Puppeteer. The tips of her hair were dyed cyan. The top of her dress matched. She laughed and giggled and animated the wax models in the room with her black pixie wand.

The models moved exactly like The Bubbler and Lady Wifi. They were all wax. She then flew to the Ladybug and Chat Noir replicas and did the same as she had done with the villains. Ladybug walked off of her display and left the room through the second exit; The one Aquila didn't hide behind.

As he watched her, a tall shadow stretched over him. The Bubbler loomed over him with an expressionless face. Puppeteer noticed Aquila. Without a word, he flew off. Two different villains chased him. One in full hot pink, Reflekta, and another with mind-controlling perfume, Princess Fragrance. 

Princess Fragrance her perfume. He held his breath as the hallway filled with the sweet smell. Reflekta cast her hand at him. The mirror on it zapped a beam of light. He rolled out of the way and flew into her feet, grabbing them and dragging her away from the perfume.

He gulped for air, but Reflekta cast her mirror again. Aquila ducked. Princess Fragrance kicked him from behind and he fell to the ground. She sprayed her perfume again and Reflekta restrained Aquila from running away. He squirmed and wiggled, but the wax had more strength. Wait. Wax. 

His bronze wings stretched out fast enough to cut Reflekta's forearms off. They hit the ground with a clump. He spun around and sliced the Reflekta replica in half with his sharp feathers. Then he made quick work of Princess Fragrance so the perfume could dissipate and he could finally breathe.

Right, the Akuma. Aquila hurried back to the room of villains. They were all dogpiled on top of Chat Noir. He grunted when trying to get up and had more than one expression. He was real.

Aquila equipped his bow and fired his arrows at all of the wax replicas. They fell to the ground in pieces and Chat Noir could move freely again. He stood up and approached Aquila.

"That was quite an entrance." Chat Noir complimented

"Thanks?"

"We should hurry. Ladybug is at the workshop." 

The cat then ran off. The bird followed. They sprinted up the stairs and found Ladybug running down to them. She seemed off as she hurried to Chat Noir's side. She held his hand, which was a first, but Chat Noir didn't seem to mind.

"What do we do now?" Aquila asked her, trying not to pay attention to the hand holding. She didn't respond.

Chat Noir changed the subject, "Is that a new perfume, M'lady?" He sniffed the air. Aquila growled. Why can't they just beat the villain and go home?

Chat Noir made a weird face at Ladybug's perfume, "Wax?"

Both stared at each other in realization.

"Cataclysm!"

Ladybug became stone and fell to the ground as a pile of rubble. Chat Noir and Aquila continued to the workshop to help the real Ladybug. Aquila led the way and swung open the door. Chat burst in and kicked the wax models off of Ladybug before they could take her earrings. She stood up and thanked him.

Aquila flew over their heads and shot a model charging at them, slicing it to pieces. Chat joined in a fought with his staff.

"Have you figured out what to do with your lucky charm?" Chat Noir asked her. Ladybug stood in place and scanned the room that she could use with the spotted stick her lucky charm gave her

"I do now!" She exclaimed as she ran around the room to collect supplies.

Aquila fought a wax replica of Clara Nightingale; a famous singer in Paris. The replica ran after Ladybug. He shot an arrow and sliced her head off. The body turned around and targeted him instead. 

He avoided a punch then delivered his own He plucked one of his feathers and used it to slice part of the model's arm to bits.

"Incoming!" Chat Noir warned. Aquila ducked to avoid a male replica being thrown at Clara. He threw the more feathers at them until the wax models were immobilized. Ladybug then joined them with a black wand in her hands.

"Aquila, you'll have to act as backup." She said, "There are no wax statues of you so you'll have to stay hidden."

"I'm good at doing that." He responded.

Once Ladybug finished explaining her plan, Chat Noir got into character and kept his face emotionless. The three of them snuck to the wax room. Aquila left the others and entered through the back door in complete silence.

Puppeteer flew around a curtain hanging from a rope over the tub of sweltering wax. Aquila flapped up and crouched on a metal beam close to the roof. He began to sweat from the heat of the wax and harsh lights.

Chat Noir and Ladybug walked through the doors. The pretended Chat held her hostage. Ladybug bug struggled and yelled at him to let her go.

Puppeteer laughed triumphantly, "I almost beat you, Ladybug. Chat Noir, give me her earrings!"

Chat reached his hand out to follow the girl's orders. He stopped a few inches away from her ears, seemingly frozen in place. While Puppeteer freaked out over why he didn't listen, Ladybug pulled out her replica of Puppeterr's wand.

"Surprise! I swapped them out earlier." She held the wand as if about to snap it, "You lose, Puppeteer!”

"Hmph! I don't care!" Puppeteer shouted, "If you break my wand, I'll just turn them into  _ real _ wax statues!"

The curtain fell onto the floor and revealed Thomas and the lady from before tied back-to-back with rope. Aquila almost launched off of the beam, but he stopped himself.

Ladybug gave in and returned the _ “real” _ wand to Puppeteer. The girl held one wand in each hand. Things were going well until Chat Noir's ring beeped.

“Hey! If you’re the real then that means that-”

Ladybug leaped up and snatched the real wand from Puppeteer's hand. She snapped it in half and let the Akuma flutter out. While she de-evilized the Akuma, Aquila hurried and cut the rope with one of his feathers. He took Thomas and the lady away from the wax tub and safely placed them on the floor before cutting them loose.

“Thank you,” Thomas said to Aquila.

He smiled, “I’m glad you’re alright.”

* * *

The city of lights held up to its name. The soft gold lit up the roads for vehicles. It illuminated the 24-hour buildings for Parisians. Though, not as many stars twinkled in the dark sky. They all fell to the earth and landed on Paris’ roads.

In the sky, night masked Aquila from anyone who felt like calling him out. He could see everything, yet no one saw him. It became a bad habit to sneak out to fly for an hour or two. On weekends, he’d stay out until midnight.

Sometimes he would rest on the roofs. Most were dark, which offered good hiding places. Tonight, he spotted a white speck on the ledge of a roof he flew over.

A feeling told him to keep flying. A foreign power commanded him to return home and forget he saw her, but he couldn’t.

Aquila turned around and glided to the opposite side of the roof. He made a sound when landing, but she didn’t react.

He slowly approached from behind, questioning why. Why did he want to talk to her? One step, then a second, a third. He stopped, awkwardly clearing his throat.

Lune whipped her head around, loosening up when seeing him. Or tried to.

“Hey, Aquila.” She greeted somberly.

“What are you doing out here?” He asked, sitting down a comfortable distance from her. She sat huddled near the side of the roof. Her toes hung over the edge

Lune kept silent. Her eyes were somewhere else in the world as she stared into the distance. Aquila considered asking again. 

“...Is everything alright?” No response, “Lune?”

She focused on him. Her eyes were dull and melancholy. Aquila couldn’t maintain eye contact and found it more comfortable to watch the cars drive below them.

“I…” Lune trailed off, “I feel like a horrible person.”

Silence once more. Aquila sat there and searched his mind for what to say, “Why?”

She laughed weakly in guilt, “I ended things with my boyfriend. Surprise: I wasn’t single this whole time.”

Kaetlyn appeared in Aquila’s mind. Seeing her again made him thrilled. It would be wonderful to see her again. He smiled, but covered his mouth when remembering Lune sat next to him. She looked worse. His apology would only end up in a stuttering mess, so he kept quiet.

Instead, he wanted to say something meaningful to the conversation. He begun a sentence, then decided another would be better. Then he realized he had no idea what he was saying and his words slurred into mumbling.

Lune laughed. Nothing too big, but it appeared to cheer her up. She managed to thank him in between giggles. 

Aquila stared at the ground, wishing he could hide. For some reason, he didn’t fly off to do so. Then he wondered why he decided to talk to Lune in the first place. When he looked up at her, her soft smile gave him the answer. To him, it felt so familiar.


	9. No Guys, No Worries

“I can’t believe this!” Arden roared, “You started dating and didn’t tell me? Then you broke up with him and didn’t tell me?!”

Kaetlyn sighed. Arden would only call back if she hung up now. It would have been easier over the phone, but something like this would be better on a facetime call. Kaetlyn’s Mom was out shopping and her Dad still had some work to finish. It would be easier to have a conversation with a feeling of privacy.

“Time zones make it hard to call all the time…” Kaetlyn said.

Arden’s eyebrows furrowed and her eyes narrowed on the computer screen. “I’m calling him.”

“What? No!” Kaetlyn jumped from her seat, “Please don’t bother Reid! We haven’t talked since I broke up with him and it’s really awkward.”

Arden placed her phone down. She folded her legs and played with her necklace. After a long moment of silence, she spoke softly, “I wish I could help.”

“Hm?”

“I just-” She sighed, “You, Reid, and Xack are my friends. I want to be there for you, but we’re too far apart.”

It didn’t make complete sense. Even a short text could be a way to help someone. But Kaetlyn instead said, “Just listening is enough. Thanks.”

Arden smiled. She glanced below the screen and straightened her posture.

“Oh, it’s late… We’re talking again tomorrow.”

Kaetlyn shrugged and said, “Let’s talk about something else next time.”

Arden waved goodbye and ended the call. Kaetlyn spun around in her chair and let out a deep sigh; A mix of relief and guilt. It was better when she didn’t care about dating. Why couldn’t there be a time machine to take her back to elementary? 

Lunna floated over to the desk. She smiled and said, “Things will get better! It’s not like all of the jerky in the world vanished.”

Kaetlyn smirked, “Didn’t know you could say something without a snarky comment.”

Then her phone rang. Sam called her.

* * *

The park was full of green trees, birds chirping, the bright sun heating the earth, and a crowd of men brawling each other. Ember Mclain made an appearance. No one could ever tell she was a ghost despite the flaming blue ponytail and almost white skin. The men that made up the majority of her fanbase had fallen for her in some form of the definition. Those lucky enough to see her at the park started duking it out for the title "Ember's #1 fan."

Sam, Tucker, Reid, and Danny's older sister, Jazz, were lucky enough to see the glorious sight. They were the only ones equipped with the equipment to catch Ember and return her to the Ghost Zone. First, they would need an extra person to help. 

Sam held her phone to her ear, "We're gonna need you at the park. Ember, Kitty, Spectra, and Johnny 13 are here."

Along with Ember stood a slightly older woman in a red suit and fiery orange, slicked-back hair. They watched Kitty argue with Johnny 13 about something.

"Can't you and the guys handle it...?" Kaetlyn sounded reluctant.

Sam almost forgot how awkward things have been between Reid and Kaetlyn. Neither of them seemed to be taking things well, but they might need an extra person.

She hesitated before replying, "No. Danny's at a fishing trip with his dad and Jazz is still new to ghost hunting.

The sound of a drawer opening traveled through the phone's speaker. Metal objects were being moved around.

"Jazz? How long has she known?!"

"Longer than you, but she doesn't fight ghosts as often."

Nothing but footsteps came through the phone. A door creaked open when Kaetlyn finally said, "I'll be there soon."

Sam hung up and informed the group on Kaetlyn's arrival. Reid's eyebrows creased. He tried fidgeting without the others catching on.

Kitty's furious yelling directed their attention to her. She blew an angry kiss at Johnny just as Ember struck a deafening guitar chord. It played throughout the park and stretched through the rest of Amity Park. The men fighting over Ember popped out of existence, then Tucker and Reid, then everyone else until only women were left in Amity.

Ember had strummed a chord on her purple electric guitar. She kept playing in her victory before strumming another deafening chord. Each woman became possessed and gathered at the park. Their eyes glowed red and watched Spectra, Ember, and Kitty float above them.

Sam and Jazz's specter deflectors beeped to indicate it prevented something ghostly from affecting them. Jazz's pulled out a tracker and gasped at what it read.

"I'm not getting any readings on ghost-getter numbers two and three!" She exclaimed.

"You mean Tucker and Reid." Sam grew tired of Jazz's name for their group, "I don't think this is just about them, Jazz."

Before the ghosts could spot them, Sam and Jazz hurried to the Fenton's house. The basement would offer plenty of equipment to help. Sam called Kaetlyn to update her. Kaetlyn couldn't hide her bewilderment but agreed to instead meet at the house.

They went down the stairs and heard a buzzing and saw Mrs.Fenton working on one of her ghost-hunting gadgets. Red sparks jumped from the metal rod. She hadn't heard the girls walk in until Jazz asked how long she's been in the basement.

She placed the metal rod on the work table and took off her goggles. She said, "Uh-huh! I'm making real progress with this- Ectowave... thingy. Well, except for the name."

"The anti-ecto walls of the lab must have protected you from the ghost's spell!" Sam assumed. No one disagreed with her. Sam continued to explain the situation to Mrs.Fenton. She wasted no time to take a gun from the wall and hurry upstairs.

Footsteps tapped on the stairs leading to the lab. Mrs.Fenton fired her gun and shouted, "Ghost!" 

The green laser beam hit the corner of the wall and ricocheted onto the tiles floor. A figure ducked at the projectile and threw its hands up.

"It's just me!" A girl's voice shouted, "I'm human! Don't fire!"

Mrs.Fenton quickly apologized to Kaetlyn with much guilt. Kaetlyn forgave her and asked for the details on what they would be dealing with. She hadn't seen many people walking around town. Those she did spot were all women. 

Sam re-explained everything. Kitty could kiss men out of existence. Great, but now they needed a plan. Mrs.Fenton wanted action and to get rid of the ghosts with firepower. Sam and Jazz agreed to form a plan logically. Kaetlyn would have preferred to throw a few punches and return the three ghosts to the ghost world, but they agreed on Sam and Jazz's idea

"I have a plan," Sam stated.

"I do too." Jazz bounced back.

"Jazz, trust me. Mine will actually work."

Noted: Two members of the temporary group had some tension between them. However long Jazz had known about Danny's powers, no one really liked her fighting ghosts with them. Kaetlyn wasn't supposed to know either, but it was tricky keeping secrets from friends you've known for years. She definitely couldn't use Lune for this ghost fight.

It's not like Lune could disguise herself as a background singer for Ember. Jazz and Kaetlyn got paired together as the ones who couldn't participate in Spectra's cooking show or had the athletic ability to past Kitty's military test. Sam wanted each person to split up and take on a ghost. Jazz being the "annoying newbie" added another reason as to why Kaetlyn had to join her.

The two tried to blend in with the other two girls under the brainwashing spell. They wore matching purple outfits and each stood in front of a microphone. Jazz and Kaetlyn exchanged looks. Neither of them wanted to do this. 

Ember danced on the front of the wooden stage while singing and playing her electric guitar. Kaetlyn never fought her directly, but new she fed on fame. The more people knew about her, the more powerful she obtained. Currently, a good portion of Amity's female population were cheering and clapping and roaring over the song Ember played. 

Kaetlyn couldn't hear anything not coming from the stage speakers, but she didn't need to say anything to let Jazz know that now would be a good time to fire the Fenton Thermos. He aimed it at Ember, but the background singers had their turn to sing. They went down the line of four. The first girl sang, the second harmonized with her, and Jazz -unsure of what to do- grabbed the microphone's stand and sang horribly into it.

Kaetlyn gripped her microphone stand, awkward and tense, and teeth clenched tightly. Relief flowed through her since she didn't have to sing, but now everyone stared at Jazz. The audience started booing her and throwing trash at her. Some landed on Kaetlyn. With the plan failing, they had to retreat to the Fenton's house.

They gathered at the round dining table. Mrs.Fenton went on about Sam's mother. The woman was in Spectra's cooking show. Meanwhile, Sam visibly ached from her attempt to capture Kitty. Jazz and Kaetlyn reeked of filth.

With no second plan in mind, Kaetlyn took the time to learn more about Spectra. Sam had the most knowledge about her. Spectra was a ghost that gained power from misery and kept a young appearance from it. 

Currently, it seemed like the ghosts were simply enjoying life without men. Nothing more. But The group still needed to stop them. The ghosts were doing more harm than anything. Though, it felt nice to not have to run into Reid. Kaetlyn didn't have to actively avoid him or fear to confront him.

She tried shaking the thoughts out of her head. Just a few weeks ago they were together and long before that, they were friends. Shame swept over her. It made her chest heavy. From her hood, Lunna hugged Kaetlyn's neck. No one saw the kwami, and Ember's words distracted everyone before attention could be brought to Kaetlyn.

"Women of Amity Park!" Her voice came from speakers and traveled throughout the town.

Mrs.Fenton left her seat and placed her hand on a screen on the wall. The girls followed her.

"Four to the off-center." She spoke to the computer. Her face spelled disgust at the stench of Jazz and Kaetlyn. She then murmured, "And two to the shower."

A glass tube stretched out form the ceiling and sucked the four girls upstairs. They stopped in the wild metal shape built on the house's roof. The tube retracted into the ceiling and the group bolted across the large room to an open window. Kaetlyn suddenly noticed that she and Jazz were clean and didn't smell anymore.

Outside paraded a mob of red-eye women and Ember playing her electric guitar on the roof of a bus. Each woman held something to be used as a weapon. They all sneered and yelled, ready for war. Kaetlyn only turned away when Sam and Jazz started arguing.

"I've got a plan that could work." Jazz stated.

"Uh, Jazz, why don't you let your mom and me handle this?"

"Right, because your plan worked so great!"

"At least I didn't come up with the name 'Ghost-getters!'"

Mrs.Fenton quickly came to break them up. Kaetlyn and Lunna exchanged worried looks. Then Lunna started snickering and pointing down.

Kaetlyn looked at her outfit. Still purple and showing her midsection. She quickly zipped up her blue jacket to completely cover her top, glaring at her kwami. She didn't need any mockery to know she looked ridiculous.

"Kaetlyn, did you hear that?" Mrs.Fenton asked.

Kaetlyn flinched and Lunna disappeared into the jacket's hood. The group stared at her. Based on their looks, they weren't asking about any strange noise.

"Uh... No... Could you repeat that?"

"It was Kitty's kiss that made all the men disappear, right?" Jazz began.

Kaetlyn nodded.

"So if we get her to blow another and Ember hits that same chord on her guitar, it could reverse the curse and break the spell!"

Then Sam made her point, "Yeah, but the spell makes them disappear. How do we get them back?"

Jazz approached the curved wall and pushed a button surrounded in black and yellow lines. A slightly smaller glass tube reached down and sucked up a backpack with two satellite dishes connected on the top with two rods.

"With the Maddie Modulator!" 

Mrs.Fenton praised Jazz on the name. 

"If this reverses spectral frequencies like you said, all we have to do is aim it at Ember's guitar and reverse the kiss as it travels across town."

Kaetlyn kept nodded, still unused to the whole ghost-talk at times.

"If we want Ember to play that chord, Kitty will need to think there are still some men left in town," Mrs.Fenton said.

Jazz agreed and added, "One of us is going to have to dress like a boy."

They all turned to Sam, who had some issues with the idea.

Kaetlyn placed her hand on Sam's shoulder and said, "I can dress up with you if it helps. Sitting and waiting gets boring."

Though sitting and waiting seemed better than wearing a white jacket, baggy white pants, and a black shirt. Sam wore Danny’s t-shirt and jeans with her short ponytail down. Danny’s closet was the closest store with men’s clothing that they could access.

“Make sure to wear the hat.” Sam handed Kaetlyn a white sun visor. Kaetlyn reluctantly took it on and strapped it around her head under her short ponytail. Her hair, longer than Sam’s, seemed too girlish without the hat.

“Since when does Danny have enough money to buy this?” She twirled the golden necklace that came with the outfit.

“A garage sale. Look, can we just get this over with? This whole day is going to require  _ years  _ of therapy.”

“I second that...”

The crowd of girls cheered for Ember, Spectra, and Kitty. They stood on Ember’s wooden stage in the park and waved at everyone. Sam and Kaetlyn made their way through to the end of the stage. Sam threw on a pair of sunglasses -despite the sun setting- and Kaetlyn played a random game on her phone that Jazz downloaded.

“Hey ladies, looking good!” Sam complimented with a lower-pitched voice. She jumped onto the stage and threw her arms over two of the ghosts’ shoulders, “Anyone care to join a handsome guy like me in a masculine game of catch, er- uh- sweating?”

Kaetlyn joined then and threw her arm over the third ghost while pretending like she knew how to play her game, “Or maybe some video games? Energy drinks and cold pizza on me!” She put on her best masculine voice, which was horrible at best.

The ghosts believed the charade, for Spectra questioned Kitty, who passed the blame to Ember. Sam and Kaetlyn glanced at each other. Kaetlyn kept her head low so her hat could cover more of her face. A bit more provoking should work.

“Gee, we’d love to stay and watch you ladies destroy yourselves with bickering, but uh…”

“We gotta get to a burp off!” Kaetlyn helped Sam.

“Yeah! So much soda, man.”

They walked off. The ghosts started talking about something. 

Kaetlyn leaned over and whispered to Sam, “How was that? Was the burp off thing too much?”

“It’s stupid and meaningless.” She replied, “Exactly something a guy would do.”

A loud strum of an electric guitar played. The two spun around and saw Kitty’s kiss expand and rise into the air. Mrs.Fenton fired sonic waves from the roof she and Jazz hid on. The kiss puffed away and light blasted throughout Amity. 

Men began poofing into existence, including Tucker and Reid. Sam and Kaetlyn high-fived each other and turned back to the ghosts.

“What’s happening?!” Kitty exclaimed, “I see boys!”

“Look!” Spectra pointed at the duo. They gave them a smug smile as each of them threw off their ridiculous outfits. Jazz and Mrs.Fenton joined them en were equipped with various firearms for ghost hunting.

“We’ve been tricked.” Spectra ordered, “Kitty, another kiss.” 

Sam rushed at Kitten and side-kicked her off of the stage. She took a gun and fired it at the ghost, who flew backward into the air. Jazz sucked her up with her Fenton Thermos. Ember threw Sam backward and began attacking Jazz with her guitar.

“Pass it over!” Kaetlyn yelled. Jazz tossed the large green gun to her. Ember spun around and struck a chord, but Kaetlyn leaped into the air and fired the gun. Green smoke surrounded Ember and gave Sam the chance to suck her up with her thermos.

Mrs.Fenton slid across the ground, trying to hit Spectra with circular claws that could restrain her. Spectra kept dodging. Jazz waved for the gun and Kaetlyn handed it over. She then fired at Spectra, hit her, but then the ghost flew into the air.

She landed on the ground in front of Mrs.Fenton, who had slid into a trash can. The other three girls caught up to them. Jazz pointed her gun at Spectra, Kaetlyn had her thermos, and Sam blocked the way to Mrs.Fenton.

“Buh-bye,” Kaetlyn said as she sucked up Spectra.

Jazz strapped her gun to her back and shouted gleefully, “Yay! My plan worked!”

“Nice job.” Sam complimented.

Mrs.Fenton came to hug Jazz and say, “Like daughter, like mother.”

It took only a whiff to gag and pinch their noses. Mrs.Fenton smelled worse than Jazz and Kaetlyn from before. But, they all laughed and regrouped at the Fenton’s house, relaxing as congratulations for saving Amity.

* * *

They met again on another night; On the same roof. Lune wasn’t curled up and sulking, but she didn’t smile either. Aquila sat beside her from the same distance as before. It was at least easier to get more out of her than the last time they talked.

“So.. you’re only sad because you don’t miss your ex?” Aquila made sure he understood the situation. Lune nodded. Girls are confusing…

“When he left for the day and I didn’t have to worry about avoiding him, I just… felt bad.” Lune said, “Like, I assumed I would feel something when we broke up, but I was just happy I didn’t have to worry about him.”

Aquila sighed and stood up. He stretched his wings as he said, “I don’t understand that stuff, but I would say you didn’t love him to begin with.”

She blankly stared at him. It took a moment for something in her mind to snap her back to reality. Her mouth opened to speak, but nothing came out. Aquila scratched the back of his head and walked to the edge of the roof.

“I mean…” He turned to look at her, “You can’t feel bad about something if you never had feelings for it.” At least, that was how he looked at it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello! I wanted to quickly apologize for episodes from the series being out of order. Yes, I know “D-Stabilized” (The Danny Phantom episode that is used in Chapter 5) comes after “Girls Night Out” (The episode used for this chapter). It’s mainly the outcome of what I could do to include Danny Phantom and Miraculous Ladybug episodes while serving NLNAE’s story. Future Danny Phantom episodes I'll be using will also be out of order from the series. I wanted to clear that up real quick. ‘Til next week!


	10. Fixing The Damages

They ate in Nasty Burger for lunch. Danny, Sam, Tucker, and Kaetlyn. Plenty of teenagers from school hung out and ate too. With summer, more students packed the food joint than usual. They all laughed and talked with the speakers constantly calling out new orders. Though Kaetlyn’s table was quieter. She hadn’t joined them as a group for a long while.

Another person like many others entered the building, but the group recognized his face. In unison, Danny, Sam, and Tucker whipped their heads to Kaetlyn. She stared back at them, slowly taking a bite from her burger. Reid approached them, but noticed Kaetlyn and did a 180 to the front doors.

“Stop staring, guys. It’s creepy.” Kaetlyn said as she left her seat and caught up to Reid. He stopped, but didn’t speak. He kept his head low. Some things from middle school stayed the same. 

Now that she could talk to him, all words left her. She had practiced that rough draft of a script all of yesterday, but it abandoned her when she needed it. 

Reid lifted his head and said, “I’m sorry.”

Kaetlyn still had no words, but from surprise.

“I…” His eyebrows creased, “I don’t know wha-”

“Everybody out!” A man’s voice yelled from the front doors, “This is an evacuation!”

Soldiers in white armor stomped into the building with ectoplasmic guns in hand. A man in a white suit, shaved head, and dark sunglasses said, “This place is being demolished by order of the new owner.”

Danny rushed up to the man. “New owner?” He echoed.

Then an older and tall man entered through the front doors. His blue eyes were ice as he spoke to Danny, “You know these walls are filled with harmful ecto-bestos. As the new proprietor it  _ is  _ my duty to tear this place down."

They knew each other. The man had silver hair slicked back into a shoulder-length rat tail. He wore an expensive black suit. Vlad Masters and then this guy. Kaetlyn wondered how many rich men Danny made enemies with.

Everyone evacuated the building and watched as crane crushed Nasty Burger flat with a metal weight larger than the building. Of course all of the teenage customers that made the place their everyday hang out complained and protested. 

Tucker picked up a cup lid from the debris and cried out, “Farewell, old friend. We hardly knew ye!”

Danny and the man were still arguing; The man being more calm knowing he currently had the upper hand. As he walked away, Kaetlyn nudged Danny’s shoulder and hissed, “What did you do?”

Based on his expression, he had done a lot. Kaetlyn, Sam, Tucker, and Reid followed him as he stomped home. Kaetlyn kept up his pace with impatience towards him. He gave her a sidelong look, then turned his head toward the others behind him.

“So I pulled some pranks on Vlad. Now he’s out to get me.”

“He’s  _ always  _ out to get you. You made things worse,” Kaetlyn said, “You demolished Nasty Burger!” 

Then she realized he called the man “Vlad.” Vlad Masters; A man with millions of dollars and an extravagant mansion, who also went by Vlad Plasmius; a ghost with enough ghost tech to wipe out even the most powerful of ghosts in the Ghost Zone. A lot of ghost business. 

“Why can’t anyone tell me everything about  _ everything?!”  _ Kaetlyn exclaimed.

Tucker shrugged and Sam wore a nervous smile.

“Because we’re too busy fighting ghosts…?” Tucker’s pitch rose.

Kaetlyn sighed. Akumas were enough, but know she had to deal with a weird old man who had enough trouble beating up a teenager to attempt to make a female clone of that teenager. She decided to go home in silence. Hopefully she could enjoy a moment of silence before Vlad came back to bother Danny and them. Especially Danny.

But that couldn’t be possible with her parents watching the news channel in the living room. Vlad stood at a podium to give a speech. Kaetlyn went upstairs to her room and turned on her computer to watch something more interesting. Lunna flew from her hood and found a comfy spot on the shelf above the computer.

“Why not go to Paris for a little while? I really like the food there.” Lunna suggested.

Kaetlyn shook her head, “We need to conserve energy. Someone's going to notice if we use so much power all the time”

The kwami huffed, “You didn’t make that habit before!”

“Now I am. We live in Amity now.”

Lunna rolled her eyes. Kaetlyn opened a tab and went to one of her favorite streaming sites. There had to be something that could last an evening. Something she hadn’t watched yet. Before she could decide on anything, her phone buzzed. A notification reading  _ “NEW MAYOR ELECTED!”  _ popped onto her lock screen. Kaetlyn jumped from her seating when reading it.

“Vlad was running for Mayor?!” She shouted.

“Yep!” Her mother called from downstairs. 

“Y-yeah, thanks!” Kaetlyn called back. She skimmed through the article. Vlad Masters had won by a landslide. A lot of people liked the guy from Wisconsin. She checked her app and watched his speech live. The crowd cheered and waved signs promoting Vlad. He thanked everyone and had a wide smile as he spoke into the microphone.

“I’d like to take a moment now, if I may, to thank a  _ very  _ special person in my life,” Vlad said. Based on the stories her friends told her, the guy relied on no one. He cared for no one. “Come on up here, Danny Fenton!”

Kaetlyn started with a sarcastic laugh, which quickly turned into worry. Lune would be dragged into  _ something.  _

_  
_ ________________________________________________________

First heightened security, security camera all over town, and a ban of “Danny Phantom.” Amity once knew him as someone to fight ghosts, but Vlad persuaded everyone that he only welcomed and encouraged ghosts to keep terrorizing Amity.

“It’s an absolute load,” Danny said, “With me out of the picture, ghosts will be on the loose all over town!”

Which proved false… The Guys in White -The same men who took part in demolishing Nasty Burger- kept up with the random ghost attacks and made headlines on the news for it. Danny still doubted it, saying that the attacks were staged to help convince them they didn’t need Danny Phantom.

Tucker tried finding a bright side and mentioned that Vlad rebuilt Nasty Burger. The group decided to go for lunch, but found a large bouncer blocking the doors to “McMasters.” Both Reid and Tucker had some problems with the name change. Danny approached the doors to peek through the glass, but the bouncer pushed him backward onto the sidewalk. 

“No teenagers allowed!” He yelled. Then pointed to the sign with a silhouette awfully similar to Danny’s with a red cross over it. Other teenagers from Casper stomped away, blaming Danny for it all. Vlad made sure that Danny would be seen as responsible, saying Danny had inspired him to work in politics during his speech a few days ago.

“Okay, I  _ really _ feel bad now,” Danny said, “I’m going gho-”

“Wait!” Sam shouted and pointed at the security camera on McMasters. Little did they know that the alleyways had a few blind spots. Transforming only took a few seconds, so when the security camera around the alley turned away, Kaetlyn quickly murmured the magic words and traded her hood and jeans for white spandex and mask.

Tucker had just fallen from the wall after ripping the camera from its resting place. Electricity sparked from the colorful wires. Danny wasted no time to transform and phased into the food joint. Lune followed, but couldn’t find a way in. Maybe she could break a window? But security might come...

Danny’s head popped out from a wall. “What are you doing here?!”

“Uh…” Lune shrugged, “You seemed in a rush so I thought you might need help?”

“This is more of a personal matter.”

“Something to do with Vlad. I looked him up after helping you and Dani. He sucks as a mayor.”  
“Tell me about it.”

His head popped back into the wall. The window near Lune opened and Danny gestured for her to climb through.

“I don’t plan on fighting, but if my plan doesn’t work you’re welcome to trash the place.”

“I see your relationship hasn’t improved…”

Then Danny flew through the hallways. Lune followed behind, wary of any security. Strangely, only Danny and Lune wandered the halls. But Danny phased through a wall. Lune hurried around the corner to the room she assumed he entered. She peeked through the glass window of the door. 

The room had luxurious furniture with warm browns and reds. Pricey paintings of Vlad were hung on the wall. Danny hovered to be higher than Vlad, who sat in a large chair at his wooden desk. Vlad had an evil smirk as Danny spoke. He asked for an apology, but Vlad stood from his seat in an uproar. His face twisted and his fists shook in the air. When he stopped, he pressed a red button, and alarms sounded in the building.

Lune heard running from behind her and jumped to the ceiling, struggling to not slip. Her limbs were stretched out to the walls to keep her up. Two men in white suits bolted down the hall and burst through Vlad’s door. Danny crashed through the stone walls to escape.

“Let him be,” Vlad told the men, “Fix this wall immediately.”

He then exited the room and walked down the hall. He heard something drop onto the floor but kept forwards. When he passed a window, something creaked. He turned his head and saw a girl in white spandex running outside away from the restaurant. That had to be the person she spoke about.

* * *

Now the losers of Casper gathered all the teenagers they knew from school to form a protest. Danny stood on top of a wooden picnic table with Sam and Tucker on the ground holding signs. Kaetlyn sat on the bench of the table and Reid stood in the back. Kaetlyn tried focusing on convincing the school to protest, but having Reid around made her uneasy.

Danny, Sam, and Tucker carried the recruitment well without Reid and Kaetlyn. After all, It didn’t take much for the people who already hated Vlad to wave signs and yell at the entrance of McMasters. The news decided it was enough to end up a story on TV. Kaetlyn’s father might be writing it for their app and website.

Kaetlyn stood at the front of the crowd with Sam, Tucker, and Reid. First, they would start by banning the “No Teenagers” rule the fast food place had. Hopefully it would work. Then they could work towards getting rid of Amity’s current mayor.

Someone squeezed through the crowd to make their way to the front. Kaetlyn noticed people being shoved and moved as someone with blond hair joined the group. He bumped past Reid, who had an upset look towards the boy.

“Jayden! It’s been a while.” Kaetlyn surprised herself for remembering his name. Though becoming Akumatized can make someone easier to remember.

“I saw you were leading this crowd and wanted to see what was happening,” He said as he turned down the volume of his hearing aids. His green eyes turned to Kaetlyn's friends and greeted them. They gave him weird looks.

“We met him at a Dumpty Humpty concert. He and I talked a bit after, but it’s been a while,” Kaetlyn explained.

Jayden waved to them. His golden-brown eyes were friendly.

Interrupting them was a limousine that pulled up in front of the restaurant. Vlad got out and approached the front of the crowd. 

“Now, now, children I’m sure we can reach some sort of an understanding here.” Vlad kept a relatively kind tone and face.

“We’re not children! So stop treating us that way!” Sam yelled. The rest of the crowd roared in agreement.

Vlad started using modern slang for better persuasion. Attempted to. He failed so miserably Kaetlyn started to feel second-hand embarrassment. Danny’s parents showed up and didn’t make things any better.

“He is not good at this…” Jayden murmured. He still cringed with his golden-brown eyes watching it all.

Vlad became agitated with Mr.Fenton and made a last attempt to talk his way out of the protest, “Come on now, dudes, can’t we  _ wrap _ up about this? Open up a  _ meaningful _ dialogue?”

“How about  _ I  _ open something up?! Like a big can of worms?” Danny Phantom landed on the road with a furious face. Mr.Fenton whipped out a small gun that hummed as he aimed it at Danny. Vlad, surprisingly, allowed Danny to speak his mind.

“Really? Uh, okay. Then I’ll give it to you straight!”

Vlad’s grin made things unnerving, but Danny continued with, “The Mayor is a phony! And he’s hiding a secret that would shock you all!”

Cameras focussed on Danny. The news was ready to put the next thing he said in the headlines. Vlad seemed too confident for it to turn out how Danny wanted.

“It’s time for the whole world to know,” Danny kept his voice loud enough for the crowd, “That Vlad Masters is really-”

“The most feared nemesis in the entire ghost realm!”

Everyone turned to Vlad Plasmius, who floated high above the buildings around them. Vlad Masters made sure to sound frightened, but couldn’t help but slide in a few compliments.

“Vlad can duplicate himself?!” Kaetlyn hissed at her friends. Plasmius fired a pink ecto ray at a group of students before they could answer. The students ran and screamed, then everyone else followed.

They scattered. Kaetlyn easily found a spot behind a car to transform, but Reid happened to pick the same car. Before Kaetlyn could react, Reid stood up and ran to find a different place. Kaetlyn called out to him, but he kept running.

“You can fix your relationship issues later,” Lunna said, “We have a big bad villain to fight!”

“Fine,” Kaetlyn said. She ducked back behind the car and transformed. Lune jumped on top of the car’s roof to see Plasmius take his cape and spin fast enough to create a pink tornado. It was a little nice to know some ghosts were color-coded

The tornado destroyed everything down the road with winds strong enough to suck Danny in. Lune had climbed the McMasters roof to escape it. The tornado consumed Danny and spat him out toward the restaurant. Lune jumped down to catch him, but both of them crashed into one of the windows and slid across the bar with plates of food and bottles of condiments. They hit the floor and smelled like fast food.

Plasmius stood in front of them. They charged after him on opposing sides. He gripped Danny’s collar and swung him around to hit Lune and send them both through the ceiling. Plasmius clenched his fist around Danny’s neck before he could fall, but Lune hit the ground. The asphalt had a dent in it. Her ribs might as well.

“Stand down, fiend!” A man shouted, “There’s a new mayor in town, and his name his Vlad Masters!”

Vlad aimed a small ecto-gun at Vlad Plasmius, who immediately acted terrified. He bolted to the ground and kneeled, begging for his afterlife. Danny, now free of Plasmius’ grip, floated down to Lune.

“He’s gonna make himself look good and take us both out of our jobs!” Lune exclaimed

Danny’s eyes widened. Something lit up in his mind. “Unless it does the opposite,” He said. Danny turned invisible and zipped to Vlad Plasmius. He phased into him and Plasmius started to scream and make odd faces. Then his red eyes turned green. He returned from fearful to evil and began dodging all of Master’s shots from his gun. Danny had possessed him.

Plasmius flew to Masters’ limousine, successfully getting Masters to shoot at it and cause an explosion. Everyone gathered around as the smoke cleared away to show Danny Fenton scratched and beat up on the floor. He was still conscious. Lune hurried to the sight and kneeled next to him, checking the damages.

Turning to Vlad, she blamed him for the accident by yelling, “Look at this! You harmed some defenseless teenager just minding his own business!” Then she remembered Lune doesn’t know about Danny and mumbled, “I can’t believe Danny Phantom was reckless like that,” only loud enough for Danny to hear.

Sam, Reid, and Tucker got the hint and played along. The crowd started yelling at shaking their fists at Vlad Masters, who couldn’t come up with anything to convincingly defend himself.

Danny’s Parents came rushing to him, so Lune backed away and let them care for him. He wasn’t too hurt but made it a big deal to keep up the charade. This played well for the good side. To keep Amity happy, Vlad released all of the laws he set by the next day. Nasty Burger was rebuilt, allowing teenagers to dine there, Danny Phantom could fight ghosts, and most security cameras were taken down.

Kaetlyn walked home with her friends after watching Vlad sign the papers that allowed all of this to happen at the city hall. It had become official. Tomorrow they could go to Nasty Burger for some food.

Each person started to split off as the sidewalk led to different houses. When Reid had to leave, Kaetln told Tucker and Danny goodbye before following. Reid became uneasy, but Kaetlyn reassured him he didn’t have to worry.

“Really?”

“Yeah, it’s fine. I wanted to come and apologize, actually,” She said, “I’m... sorry I don’t feel the same way about you. I hate things being awkward so I hope we can at least sit at the same table when we eat with the others.” 

Kaetlyn laughed nervously. The lack of reaction coming from Reid made her fidget with her sleeves. He didn’t say anything for a moment, which stretched into eternity in her eyes.

Finally, she could breathe out a sigh of relief when Reid said, “I’m sorry I annoyed you so much.”

“No, no! It’s fine!”

He smiled and rubbed the back of his head, “I don’t want to make things awkward anymore either, so maybe we can try going back to normal? Eh- before the whole… dating thing?”

Kaetlyn knew they couldn’t return to complete normality, but agreed with him anyway. They told each other goodbye and Kaetlyn left to return home.


	11. It's Gone

At last! Fate has brought Kaetlyn to a bakery in Paris! She deserved something delicious after defeating an Akuma. Reid promised to take care of the wormhole when she needed to return. It was nice of him considered he and Lune didn’t talk too much. Thanks to that, Kaetlyn could spend a little time in Paris as a tourist instead of a hero.

There were so many people and so many places to go to. As long as Kaetlyn stayed away from usual hangout spots, it would be nearly impossible to run into anyone she knew. That meant she couldn’t eat anything at Marinette’s bakery, but she found another that sold amazing mille-feuilles.

She thanked the cashier and exited the bakery. Checking the time, it would be midday in Amity, so she could spend another hour or two enjoying herself. Leaving money in the pockets of her civilian attire would be useful for future occasions. Kaetlyn only had some because she owed Tucker some money… A lot of money… She would forget school lunches weren’t free despite such a poor quality of “food.”

The mille-feuille was far superior. She found a park bench to sit on and eat while watching the chaos unfold around her. With it being summer, many parents brought their young children to play. Laughing and shouting played tag and rode on a merry-go-round. Some couples and groups of friends hung out too. Luckily, they were no one Kaetlyn knew.

Her phone dinged with a notification. She finished her sweet baked good while checking it. The Paris news had gone live. The screen showed a view from a helicopter pointed down on a road. Large green vines tangled and wrapped around vehicles and light poles. They stuck to the walls of buildings with spikes all around and ripped out cement, asphalt, and brick as it grew.

Kaetlyn sighed. No one took notice of her, so she ducked behind a tree and transformed. Lune hurried to the sigh where police were already blocking the road off and trying to direct traffic while keeping citizens at bay. 

Lune had the privilege to examine the area. The vines still slithered throughout the road. It could be an Akuma, but she hadn’t seen Ladybug anywhere. Nor any strangely clothed person calling themselves a weird villain name. Then it could be a ghost. Hopefully not… The part Graves stole only stored so much power before it would become useless. It took a lot just to get The Box Ghost to Paris, that was for sure.

As Lune pondered on how the vines could have gotten to Paris, Aquila swooped down and landed behind her. She turned around and greeted him. He didn’t seem as bewildered at the sight as she expected. Then again, Akumas were held for much stranger things happening.

Aquila stared down at the vines and asked, “Have you seen the Akuma that caused this?”

Lune hesitated to suggest what she truly believed was responsible. Instead, she simply denied seeing anything.

“Then maybe Ladybug and Chat Noir can fix this.”

“But we’re heroes too.”

Aquila crossed his arms, “I only help when no one can get there in time.”

Lune gestured to the vines, “Bad thing,” then gestured around her, “ _ No one _ here.”

“Not ‘no one.’ You’re here,” Aquila said before turning back. He readied to lift off when a red and black blob hurried towards them by hopping on roofs.

Aquila looked back at Lune and gestured to the blobs, “And now  _ they’re _ here.”

“ _ Stay.  _ We might need you.”

Aquila surprisingly did as told. Lune greeted Ladybug and Chat. The girls started discussing and answering each other’s questions. Chat Noir kneeled and examined the vines. He decided to poke one and green wrapped around his arm. The others heard him struggling and pulled him out. Aquila shot bronze arrows to cut some of the vines back.

“New rule! No touching!” Aquila shouted as he placed his bow on his back. His face of frustration didn’t need to convince the group to his side. 

Ladybug started brainstorming a plan. No Akumas made an appearance despite having four heroes in one area. It seemed as if nothing but some strange overgrowth took place. So, Lune spoke out to the group.

“I have an idea on what could be going on,” She began, “I… think this may be from a ghost…”

“What?” Asked Ladybug.

“Are you talking about things like The Box King and that guy at the theater?” Chat asked.

Lune nodded her head, “Somehow a ghost must have gotten into Paris. They all have their own powers, so there may be a ghost that can grow vines.”

“Then we’ll have to find it and catch it,” Ladybug said, “Lune, you have that device that can trap them, right?”

She gave a weak laugh. With only visiting Paris to fight an Akuma, she didn’t think about taking her thermos.

“Then we’ll have to find another way to catch it.” Ladybug said.

“No! I got this,” Lune said before anyone could do anything else, “I’ll get my thermos. I know how to handle ghosts so the only other thing we need is to keep Paris’ citizens safe from the vines.” To further convince the weary faces, she added, “I’ve taken on ghosts by myself. And we don’t need Ladybug’s yoyo to beat them.”

Ladybug shook her head, saying a team had to stick together, but Lune kept trying to persuade everyone to leave the responsibility on her. It failed.

“What if I joined Lune?” Aquila suggested, “That way there’s two of us fighting the ghost and two controlling the vine growth.”

It was enough to convince Chat, who helped convince Ladybug. Finally, they all agreed on a plan. Ladybug and Chat kept the overgrowth under control while Lune and Aquila followed the vines to find the source. They traveled for a while.

“I thought you didn’t help unless you were alone,” Lune teased him.

“I think it’s a ghost too, but the others didn’t get stuck in America fighting one.”

She chuckled nervously, quickly apologizing. Aquila didn’t respond. They kept quiet for the rest of the trip, which didn’t take long. The vines hadn’t grown too much before someone noticed.

The duo stopped on the roof of the least damaged building in the evacuated area. Thick vines grew from deep in an alleyway. They tangled around and burst through the nearby buildings. Debris covered the damaged road below. The spikes from the vines made it difficult to get around.

Aquila flew Lune to the alleyway. Vines covered the ground completely. On the brick wall was a portal leading into a dark garage. The overgrowth was much worse with crumbling walls and holes burst through the ceiling.

“It might be the same thing that trapped me in Amity,” Aquila told Lune, whose voice shook with embarrassment.

“Uh… Yeah,” She trailed off, “We’ll have to find out what’s making all these portals lately.”

Aquila cautiously flew through the portal, avoiding any spiky vines. He placed Lune on a clear spot in the garage. The wormhole machine hadn’t been damaged; Not enough to break it, obviously. Reid should have closed it when she left. It didn’t make sense.

Lune threw the garage door up. It shook from the force. Outside had more than vines. Flowers and massive trees took over the roads. Buildings became mounds of rubble. Lune’s uneasy steps took her down the road. Other than vegetation, there was no one.

“Look out!” Aquila yelled.

Lune whipped around to see a vine charging at her. A bronze arrow sliced it apart and it hit the ground. Aquila jumped in front of her and aimed a second arrow at it, but it didn’t do anything more than wriggle aimlessly.

“We can’t be on the ground,” Lune said.

Aquila agreed and held Lune to his side before launching into the sky. They flew throughout Amity in search of  _ anything.  _ There had to be people. Someone must have hid. They had a half-ghost to fight evil ghosts for them! Such a thing can’t be a natural occurrence.

They kept searching, but could only find a boy hiding behind rubble. Still, it was enough to give them some sense of relief.

Aquila landed in front of the boy. Jayden looked up at them. He adjusted his earbuds to hear them.

“J- Uh…” Lune kneeled to be at eye level, “Sir, can you tell me what’s happened?”

“The world is going through an  _ apocalypse!”  _ Jayden’s voice shook with anger. His green eyes were wide with fear. He didn’t say any more until she asked another question. If she wanted to know something, he wouldn’t give her that answer unless she specifically asked for it.

“A giant ghost made of vines sprouted from the ground and decided to run the place,” Jayden said, “He has this brain-shaped hive mind controlling people with vines connected to their brains.”

“So that was the thing that attacked me,” Lune mumbled to herself, then said to Aquila, “See! I said you’d be useful!”

“You’re acting like you  _ weren’t  _ about to be brainwashed!”

Lune asked Jayden for info on Danny Phantom. He didn’t know where Danny could be. “I saw vines attacking people and ran,” He said.

She thanked him and offered to take him to a safer location, but he insisted on staying put. Lune would have retorted if Aquila didn’t decide to let Jayden be. Aquila took a frustrated Lune and flew off.

“We’re heroes! We need to keep people safe!” Lune argued during their flight.

“ _ You’re  _ a hero and that guy didn’t want any help.”

They continued in silence. Nothing attacked them. The further into the heart of Amity they flew, the more people they saw. They were all planting seeds to grow the jungle that took over Amity or destroying buildings to make way for the seeds. On the back of each of their heads was a vine identical to the one that attacked Lune. The vines all connected to a brain-shaped unit as Jayden had described. Nothing screamed “Big bad guy” as Lune hoped.

Aquila nodded his head towards the brain unit, “If we get rid of that then we can at least help those people.”

“I think that’s all we  _ can _ do right now.”

Something tightened around Lune’s ankle. She looked back just as a large vine snagged her from Aquila’s grip and threw her onto the concrete. As she turned over to breathe, the vine dragged her backward and hung her upside down from her ankle. A girl’s face grinned at her with glowing green eyes and short black hair.

“Sam?” Lune barely whispered.

“Fleshwalker,” Her empty voice spoke, “They will be needed for work.”

Something bronze whistled by them and cut the vine holding Lune. She dropped to the floor and leaped back into the clear area of what used to be a road. Sam wore a sleeveless leaf green dress with darker gloves. Whatever ran the plant apocalypse had brainwashed her.

Vines created a wall behind her. Some lunged at Lune, but she dodged to the side. Aquila swooped in and aimed more arrows at her.

“Don’t hurt her! She’s just being mind-controlled!”

He fired at the vines and sliced them into pieces. More simply grew around Sam and went after him. While he flew to avoid them, Lune waved from the ground.

“Toss me the bow and some arrows!”

He obviously didn’t expect her to accomplish much, but listened to her anyway. Lune caught the bow and picked up arrows as they hit the ground.

“I’ve watched enough TV to know how to do this,” She mumbled to herself as she fired an arrow. It flew far above Sam and almost hit Aquila. With a dumbfounded face, she clumsily loaded another arrow. This time it caught Sam’s glove and pinned her arm to the ground.

“Take these back!” She threw the bow back to Aquila. Apparently TV didn’t teach her anything useful.

Aquila fired another arrow and pinned Sam’s other arm to the ground. The duo escaped and found the trunk of a tall tree to hide behind. Things could still catch them if they flew, and too many things could do the same if they walked. They hadn’t spotted Danny or any sign of who could have started the overgrowth.

“Where do we go now?” Lune asked.

Aquila used his special ability to look around. He watched the brain control Amity’s citizens to garden, then scanned the sky, he stopped at something ahead of him and blinked.

“Maybe that giant tree?” He pointed at a gargantuan tree with purple leaves resting on top of a building covered in green. Around the tree laid a bed of something purple. They were a ways away from it.

“.....Huh.,” Lune wondered how they hadn’t spotted it before, “Yeah let’s go.”

Aquila checked the sky before taking off. There seemed to be less brainwashed people on the ground. It was either a good thing or a bad thing, but still left an uneasy feeling. The only other person they found was Danny Phantom frigidly staring at the human-size flowers sprouting from the bed of purple. They quickly saw why they were human-sized. 

Inside each flower, an unconscious person rested inside. Small green vines wrapped around their bodies. Some faces Lune recognized. Including her parents.

“We need to cut them out,” Lune snarled.

“There’s too many of them,” Aquila said, “I doubt more flowers won’t grow to take them again.”

Danny noticed them swoop in. Without a solid place to stand, Aquila kept hold of Lune as they hovered above the flower bed. The tree towered over them and created a dark shadow.

“Lune!” Danny called, “And- You brought him back?”

Aquila expected a translation, but Lune talked to Danny in English, “He’s been helpful. Still can be. We don’t know who we’re fighting though.”

The earth shook and an echoing growl rose from the ground. A mass of vines taller than the humongous tree compacted together to create a ghost with green claws, spikes, and red eyes. Despite the green beak, they had sharp white teeth.

“More nutrients to the children!” The ghost’s raucous voice boomed throughout. So “children” referred to the plants. 

“We’re fighting  _ that,”  _ Danny informed, “Overgrowth.”

“.....Okay, that makes sense.” Then Lune translated quickly for Aquila.

Overgrowth swung his giant clawed hand and hit the trio. They flew across the flower bed and landed into a pile of thick vines. The spikes jabbed them and left small rips in Danny’s suit. Whatever magic a miraculous had always kept Lune and Aquila’s outfits in perfect condition.

Danny flew back up to fight. As Lune got up to help, someone called her name in a hushed voice. Jayden laid on his stomach, hiding under the vines.

“I got lost and need to get out of here!” His golden-brown eyes begged for help.

Lune carried him bridal style and shouted to Aquila, “I need to help this person! Hope you can fight without me!”

“I can handle it!” Aquila called back as he joined Danny.

Lune jumped onto one of the vines and ran across until she reached where they stopped growing. She leaped onto a roof and kept running. By the time the fight behind them was only distant roars, Lune placed Jayden on his feet. 

“Th-thank you,” He said as he dusted himself off.

Lune gave the appropriate “You’re welcome.” and would have hurried to the fight if Jayden hadn’t shouted for her to wait.

“Sorry. I-” He thought for a moment, “I-I-I don’t like loud noises. I am a little scared…”

Lune raised an eyebrow. The looked between the battle and him, then tried to reassure him that everything would turn out fine if she left. For some reason, he persisted in her staying. By the time she decided to leave anyway, Overgrowth had fallen.

All of the plants shriveled into black crisps, revealing neighborhoods and stores and other buildings hidden underneath. The tree and bed of flowers released everyone they caught before shriveling up. Amity became conscious again and would slowly recover from what had happened.

“It appears that those two could accomplish victory without you.”

An odd sentence to come from Jayden, but Lune only turned around and asked, “Would you want me to take you home?”

He declined, so Lune huffed and hurried to the park where she could find her parents. Danny and Aquila were there too. She crossed a road when something sparkled in the corner of her eyes. Curious, she jogged over to retrieve a necklace with a silver chain. In the center was a green crystal with the silver wire of the chain wrapping around it. It looked valuable.

She kept it in her hand and hurried to the park. She could come back and wait in case anyone would return to look for it.

* * *

Aquila happily returned to Paris, which had been trimmed of all its vines. He didn’t bother checking in on Chat Noir and Ladybug, who had most likely returned home once everything had returned to normal. His parents didn’t notice a strange boy dressed as a bird flew through the bedroom window. He always made sure to leave the door closed and the window unlocked.

“Feathers land,” Aquila said. Light traveled down his body and replaced the spandex with normal civilian attire. He took a book from his bookshelf and flipped to a random page. As he exited his room to “take a break from reading,” he shoved his hand in his pockets. 

He froze, patting himself down. Still nothing, so he hurried to his jacket and checked all of the pockets. It wasn’t like it mattered. He never expected to see her after moving away, but was for her. He bought it for her and he couldn’t find it. He couldn’t find the necklace.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hate doing this, but NLNAE is going to have to go on a hiatus... O~O I'll be moving soon, meaning I won't have access or time to write anything for a while. I don't know how long it will be, but I don't plan to suddenly stop the story here. Once I get some time to relax, I'll work on the next chapter and pick up the story again.
> 
> I'm sorry! I'll be back as soon as possible!
> 
> (Thank you for reading!)


	12. Something Severe

Tucker, Sam, Danny, and Reid all sat in a booth in Nasty Burger. They ate and talked and tried to forget about school starting soon. They finished eating and drank everything, but wanted refills. After a couple of games of Rock, Paper, Scissors, Reid lost and had to refill everyone’s cups.

Tucker leaned back in his chair and said, “It looks like my loser streak has finally broken!”

“And my winner’s streak hasn’t!” Sam added with a smug grin.

Danny crossed his arms as the mediocre player. Then he held out his hands in preparation for another game. He said, “Loser pays for Kaetlyn’s lunch?”

Nasty Burger couldn’t leave out a member of the group. If one couldn’t make it to the food, the other’s needed to take the food to them.

“Alright,” Sam said, holding her hands out as well.

“Woah, woah, woah,” Tucker sat up and said, “Sam never loses! She’s the one with money. Make  _ her  _ pay for lunch this time!”

“Sorry, Tucker. That’s not the rules,” Same replied.

Before they could play another round, A head popped up from the table. The table screamed. Dani snickered. Looking around, The whole restaurant stared at them. Danny pushed Dani’s head under the table and came up with the first excuse to pop into his mind. It was hardly believable. Everyone returned to what they were originally doing and decided to ignore the weirdos in the back.

Dani phased through the table and said, “Hi, Danny. Hi, Danny’s friends.” Then she plopped onto the spot Reid would be sitting. Reid happened to be returning from refills at that moment. He sighed, knowing he wouldn’t get his seat back, and took a chair from an empty table. 

“I thought I’d drop by. See how things are going.” Dani said.

Tucker spoke first, “Nothing much besides your usual ghosts attacks, plants taking over the world, and Vlad becoming the mayor of Amity.”

Dani appeared concerned with the last fact. Danny reassured her that Vlad was too busy in his mansion to bother coming to Nasty Burger.

“Yeah… He only came once to get back at you for a prank,” Tucker assured.

Dani smiled and went on about places she had visited since they last saw her. Everyone listened to some extent, but a notification dinged from Reid’s phone. He checked it and an unknown number sent a video with a text message. Looking up at the table, he realized more people than him had gotten the same message. Then he noticed a few other people in the restaurant checking their phones as well. They murmured and showed what was on their screens to each other.

“What’s wrong?” Dani asked with worry.

Reid held his breath as he stared at the message that read  _ “Look at that! There are superheroes in France?!?!?”  _ He tapped on the video and watched. Someone had recorded Ladybug, Chat Noir, Lune, and Aquila fighting an akumatized villain. They mumbled French in awe. Then the camera shook from shock. The video became blurry from the jittering, but Reid could vaguely make out what happened. He looked up at his friends, who were just as concerned as him.

* * *

No words could calm Xack in such a state. He fidgeted and murmured and grumbled. He circled the room and every few laps, he would stomp his foot or grunt in anger. Arden sat on her bed, running out of things to say that could calm him. She twirled her necklace between her fingers, thinking.

When Xack accidentally hit his head against the wall, Arden stood up and tried walking him to sit beside her. He pushed her away. 

“We can buy a new necklace,” Arden suggested, “It will be just like the first one. I’ll even pay this time!”

“No!” Xack had a twisted face. One with fury and frustration. Anxiety shook his body. He couldn’t stay still but he wanted to find a spot to lie down in anger.

Arden looked up at him. Her eyes were filled with worry. Fear crept into her. She stayed still and stiff, nervous to move at all.

Xack let out a soft stream of air from his mouth. He tried to relax his body and sit down. But he still fidgeted.

With the calmest voice he could manage in his state, he said, “I don’t want a replacement. I want to give her the one I intended to give her.”

Arden hesitated, but said, “It’s almost impossible that we’ll see Kaetlyn again. The only thing you can do is mail it to her.”

“No. I’ll give the necklace to her in person,” Xack insisted. He could tell that Arden didn’t think it was possible. But she didn’t know about the strange portals between Amit Park and Paris, France. 

Ghosts were well known in Amity. Now they slipped into Paris using portals. Lune passed through Amity and Paris using them. If another one could open, Xack could see Kaetlyn. He couldn’t stay though, sadly.

“How about going to the coffee shop?” 

Xack looked up. Arden looked at him with sad yet hopeful eyes. 

He stood up and said, “Nevermind. I’ll go home,” before leaving. 

Arden stood still with her head low. She clenched her fists. She didn’t know if she should leave him be or chase after him. She wanted to do something. Kaetlyn helped her when Chloe bullied her and became her friend. Xack was always nice. People only feared him because of his intimidating presence. Arden was once a part of those people. 

She twirled her necklace. She couldn’t do much to help her friends. And what she could do, they didn’t want. Xack only wanted the original necklace he bought. Kaetlyn talked to Arden less and less the longer she stayed in Amity. Reid was nice, but he and Arden weren’t too close with each other. Everyone else ignored her. And she was too shy to change that.

The front door creaked open and swung shut. Arden’s little brother announced his return from playing with his friends. Footsteps neared her room and his head popped in.

“Hi! I came to see how you were doing?” He asked.

Arden put on a smile and said, “I’m doing fine! You go and eat or something.”

Her brother nodded and left. Even Lune had to help with Arden’s family issues. 

She groaned. Nothing much came to mind when thinking of times she helped herself or stood up for things on her own. She huffed. The urge scream tempted her. Instead, she took her wallet and slipped it in the pocket of her skirt. She announced her leaving as she closed the front door and took the elevator to the first floor.

Outside, there were plenty of people. So much noise filled the streets that she couldn’t think, which was good. Shopping should distract her long enough to forget her problems. But the roads were blocked off. Or the ones around her. 

People screamed and panicked at the sight of an Akuma. Police cleared everyone out to the other side of the blocked roads. Police cars acted as barriers to keep the civilians at a safe distance. 

The Akuma landed on the ground, holding Chat Noir’s staff back with their nunchucks. They wore clothes mimicking a ninja’s. Arden watched, forgetting the danger she was in and worried more for Char Noir. Only when Aquila swooped down and picked her did she remember.

He flew her to the other side of the barriers and scolded her by saying, “Weren’t you paying attention?! Stay away from any Akumas you see!”

“S-sorry…” Arden apologized. Aquila seemed stressed. Why he got so worked up over her safety confused her. To him, she was just another helpless civilians.

“Go home. You’re safer there than here.” He told her before flying back to the fight to help Ladybug, Lune, and Chat Noir. 

Arden watched the heroes with a melancholy look. They worked so hard to keep a whole city safe. Yet Arden couldn’t even keep herself safe.

She turned and went home. Her skirt seemed light somehow. Then she gasped and checked her pockets. Her wallet had vanished. She traced backward, hoping to find that she only dropped it somewhere on the sidewalk.

The wallet had fallen out, but in the middle of the fight where the Akuma was. She could see it laying on the pavement. It wasn’t too close to the actual fight. Only within the area blocked off. Arden would have preferred to wait, but she kept a lot of money in there. 

Looking around, most of the police were in their cars or standing by one. They all watched the fight and rooted for the heroes’ victory. 

Arden nervously approached the cars. No one noticed her yet. She climbed onto the hood of a car to climb over. The driver shouted at her to get off and leave. She hurried and sprinted for her wallet. Other officers shouted at her and a few ran after her. 

She stopped and picked up the wallet. She turned around as she put the wallet in her pocket. Two officers ran towards her. Then she realized how much trouble she would be in if they caught her.

Luckily for her, they didn’t get to her in time. Unluckily for her, it was because the Akuma’s attack missed the heroes and was coming in Arden’s direction. She dipped out of the way, but now she was too deep in the area to get out. Too many weapons and attacks flew around to be able to get out safely. Instead, Arden found what she hoped would be the safest spot behind a public bench.

The villain held her arm in the air. His weapon changed from a pair of nunchucks into a shiny katana. They swung their sword at Chat Noir. He blocked with his staff, but the force was strong enough to send him flying backward. 

Ladybug wrapped the string of her yoyo around his ankle to pull him safely back onto the ground. Aquila flapped his bronze wings to create a powerful gust of wind at the villain. They skidded several feet backward. Then they charged at Aquila and sliced their sword through the air, creating winds twice as powerful as Aquila’s attacked. He flew out of the way. Lune leaped away. 

The wind blew straight at Arden. Dirt kicked up from the ground, stinging her eyes. The bench flew away from the power. The wind lifted Arden from the ground and threw her into the brick wall behind her. She screamed in fear, but only until her head hit the brick and she fell unconscious. Then she collapsed on the ground.

Aquila’s eyes widened. Then his eyebrows furrowed and he bared his teeth. He turned to the villain, who cared more about finishing off the heroes. Arden should have stayed put. She should have listened to him. 

Aquila yelled at the villain, “How dare you!”

Lune flinched at the venom spewing from his words. She looked back at Arden, wanting to run to her and see if she would be fine. But Ladybug made it there first. That left Chat Noir and Lune to handle Aquila’s fury. 

He fired countless bronze arrows at the villain, who could easily block them with their large sword. Aquila took to the air and became a brown blur flying around the villain. Arrows fired from all directions. Some almost hit his companions.

“Aquila, calm down! You’re going to hurt someone!” Lune yelled at him just before hopping away from an incoming arrow, “Aquila!”

The heroes were too distracted to notice a second civilian hiding in the background. One with blond hair and wearing a sports jersey. Their golden-brown eyes watched with an unsettling grin. The girl had changed the plan, but it would end in the same outcome. A few things needed to be pushed forward is all. They took out their phone and started recording what they knew would happen next.

They snickered with triumph as Aquila finally calmed. He remained still as gravity gently tugged him back to the earth. Chat Noir and Ladybug leaped back into action against the villain, but Lune noticed something strange about Aquila. Something unsettling.

He didn’t move. His body was relaxed. Lune cautiously approached him from behind, holding her hand out. She tried getting a looks at his face, but couldn’t get a good angle. Hesitantly, she gently placed her hand on his shoulder. His head turned. Then his body. He faced her with strange eyes. Aquila stared right at her, but his eyes didn’t focus on her.

Lune stuttered out his name. Aquila didn’t react. She repeated herself, but it was the same outcome. Arden being knocked unconscious shouldn’t have affected him so much. Aquila didn’t know her. Unless he met her in his civilian life.

“Aquila…” Lune tried again, “Are- What’s wrong?”

He stayed a statue while Chat Noir and Ladybug’s attempts to beat the villain played in the distance. The dead gaze from Aquila quickly became unsettling.

Lune gasped in fear when Aquils clutched onto her arm and flew away. Lune screamed as her teammates shrunk below her. Then the roofs of buildings. In seconds Aquila had taken Lune higher than the clouds. The air became thin, but not impossible to breathe. 

She screamed and shouted at Aquila. She swung her arm and gripped onto his. She yelled and shrieked and demanded that he fly back down and let her go. Aquila didn’t listen. His eyes were unfocused. Nothing she said made it through to him.

It seemed as if they would be flying for a while, but a portal opened ahead of them. The other side had nothing. It was dark. It gave Lune a horrible feeling in her stomach. Aquila didn’t flinch or waver. He sped up and flew straight into the portal. As soon as they entered, the portal closed its mouth and trapped them inside its pitch black stomach.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not as soon as I would have liked, but I did it! I'm able to work on NLNAE again! Things are still hectic though. But I'll do my best to post every Saturday


	13. My Life, No Alter Ego (Part 1)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I posted a day early because it'll be busy this weekend. I'll try to post again next Saturday too.   
> Thank you!

The scent of bleach greeted Arden as she awoke. The back of her head pounded. A steady beep filled her ears. She sat up and felt the cushion of a mattress. The floors, walls, and ceiling were white. Her blankets and pillows were white. The medical equipment beside her as well.

A young boy’s gasp brought Arden’s attention to her brother. He hurried to her side and leaned over the medical bed to hug her. She returned the hug. The clacking of more footsteps echoed as they neared. Her parents came to her wearing relief. They spoke and expressed their worry, but Arden’s mind was elsewhere. Her head ached more when she tried thinking too hard.

“What happened?” She asked.

Her mother answered, “The police said you ran right into an Akuma attack. You hit your head during the fight and fell unconscious.”

“We were all scared!” Her brother said.

Colors swarmed Arden’s mind. She remembered Aquila flying her to safety. Then remembering running to get her wallet. The Akuma attacked the heroes, but it hit Arden instead. After that moment, she couldn’t recall anything else.

Her parents told her what the doctors said about her condition and when she can leave, but Arden paid no attention to their words. Instead, she silently scolded herself for putting herself in danger and causing more problems. Once again, she had to rely on others to save her.

* * *

Lune screamed and yelled at Aquila, but he didn’t listen. Ahead of them grew a portal big enough for both of them to go through. Aquila didn’t waver at the ominous sight. He flew straight through into pitch black.

The sliver of light shrank as the portal closed and swallowed both of them. Aquila let go of Lune and she stumbled to the floor. It didn’t seem like there should even be a floor. She could fine, but everything around her was dark. She couldn’t make out an up or down or how big the strange place was. It was like a void. Something cold and infinite with stale air and no noise other than Lune’s shaking breath. 

She looked up at Aquila, who still had a dead gaze. He didn’t look down at her, but straight ahead. Lune clumsily got up and stared at him. She waved her hand past his face. Aquila didn’t react. She backed away, her heart pounding and her hands shaky.

“Greetings.”

Lune whipped around. Jayden stood in front of her with an unsettling grin. Too many questions flood her mind. She couldn’t pick what to ask first.

“With you here, your friends will soon be searching for you.” Jayden held out his hand, a portal appearing behind him. It led into a lab full of expensive and high-end tech, but it was too large to belong to the Fentons. 

A man stood on the other side. Vlad Plasmius; A rich man with ghost DNA fused with his human DNA. And an arch enemy to Danny. In his human form, he is Vlad Masters. But in his ghost form, he had pale blue skin and red eyes with his evil smile revealing fangs. 

He stepped through the portal. Then it closed behind him. Jayden magically opened another portal. One that led to Paris.

“Danny Phantom should be here shortly. Trust me,” Jayden said.

Vlad thanked him. But they were hardly allies. He flew through the portal and it closed behind him. Now Jayden focused solely on Lune. His golden-brown eyes locked onto Lune’s. She quickly backed away and bumped into Aquila. He gripped her forearms, holding her in place.

* * *

Danny and Dani each carried Reid in the air by an arm. He had insisted on going to Paris with them and it wouldn’t hurt to have a translator. Sam and Tucker stayed in Amity to handle the portal back home and in case Kaetlyn showed up. 

Hopefully Reid would see that everything was fine and Paris’ heroes could take care of the problem. The Akuma from the video had been beaten and the city continued as usual. Reid, annoyingly, still didn’t ease up.

“There’s nothing wrong. Lune and the others have everything under control,” Danny told Reid.

“But that video showed Aquila taking Lune somewhere in the middle of the fight. Something could have happened!”

They kept flying. All three were invisible as they flew just above the roofs. They passed by a hospital, which usually wouldn’t be important, but Reid wanted Dani and Danny to place him on the ground so he could go inside. He saw Arden looking outside an open window and felt like checking on her. It was possible she also had an idea of what happened to Lune.

The doctors let him visit her and he searched for her room. He opened the door. Arden didn’t react. Reid walked inside and walked towards her. She heard his footsteps and turned around. She paused at the sight of him.

“R-R-Reid?! Since when did you come back?”

“I uh… were in England visiting family,” Reid said, “We had a spare day and decided to visit Paris.”

“Really? I wish you told me… We could have planned something fun!”

“We could… But what happened to you?”

Arden looked around as if just realizing she was hooked up to medical equipment. With a nervous chuckle, she admitted shamefully, “I got knocked out in the middle of an Akuma attack…”

Reid wanted to immediately ask about Lune but waited until after he heard about her condition and health. After she repeated what the doctors and her parents told her, he asked, “Do you know what happened to Lune and Aquila?”

Arden’s face scrunched into confusion, “No? What happened? I must have passed out before I saw anything.”

Reid’s anxiety multiplied. He backed out of the room as he said, “You know, why don’t you lookitup? IhavetogonowsoI’llseeyoulater!”

He hurried to the front door and out of the building. He turned into the alleyway where Danny and Dani were hiding. Before they could ask anything, he told them they had to keep looking. They each took an arm and turned invisible before taking off. They flew for a few minutes longer without coming across anything. Both ghosts’ ghost sense went off with blue mist escaping his mouth. 

Danny warned them, “It’s coming from on top of- oof!”

Something hit them and they fell to the ground. Danny and Dani caught themselves, but lost grip of Reid, screaming. Dani zoomed down and grabbed his ankles, having some trouble slowing down. They stopped a few feet above the pavement. Dani carefully placed him on the ground. He fell back and stood up as Danny regrouped with them.

In front of them, Vlad Plasimius hovered inches above the ground. People began to gather. They were in the middle of an intersection with heads peering through and rolling down windows. The riders in cars stuck between the ghosts and Reid scurried out and to the safety of the crowd. Police sirens blared with an officer shouting through the microphone in French. Vlad, Danny, and Dani didn’t react.

“I’ll… try to handle the public…” Reid said as he backed away from Vlad.

Danny wished him luck. Reid knew he would need it.

Dani already stood in a defensive position against Vlad. Danny made sure he stood in front of her as he talked to him.

“What are you doing here, Vlad?” Danny bellowed.

“What,” Vlad drew out his words, “Can’t an uncle visit his nephew?”

“I’m not usually fond of family gatherings. Especially one with you!”

Vlad shrugged, “Too bad. And I was hoping to stay long enough for the food.” He held his hand out with a pink light glowing from it, “Why don’t you come to tell me goodbye!”

A laser shot from his hand. Dani and Danny dodged it but it barely missed Reid by hitting the brick above him. Reid flinched. The crowd around him gasped and screamed.

“You’re not making my job easy!” He shouted at the ghosts.

“Sorry, but our job isn’t that easy either!” Dani retorted as she fired a green laser at Vlad, which missed.

Vlad's hand glowed pink again and created a giant pink pan made of ghost energy. It swung across the intersection and hit the two ghosts. It repelled them yards down the road. As Danny and Dani got up, Vlad duplicated himself and his copies surrounded them in a circle. The duo took off into the air. The copies and the real Vlad quickly followed.

Reid watched them fly off. He paused for a moment. All three ghosts quickly became blobs. Then specks. Then nothing.

“They… They’re coming back for me,” He spoke to himself, “Right?”

In the air, Vlad fired attacks. The duo avoided or blocked them. One they found a chance, they exchanged their own chain of attacks. Pink and green lights flashed and were shot in all directions. Vlad’s duplicates were eventually nothing, but the duo was starting to become tired.

Reid did his best to explain to the police what exactly was happening. He didn’t study French as long as Kaetlyn had, so there were a few miscommunications to work through. The crowd had dispersed some, but there was no doubt that they had enough time to take videos and pictures. First Akumas in Amity, then ghosts in Paris.

When Reid finally finished with the officers, he called Sam and Tucker from his earphones. Exhausted from the subpar French, he lazily explained to them the current situation.

“What do you mean they’re fighting Vlad?!” Sam exclaimed.

“You see....” Reid didn’t know himself, “I  _ did  _ tell you something was wrong.”

“Now we definitely need to find Kaetlyn,” Tucker said, “She knows more about Paris than the rest of us.”

Reid fell silent. If Kaetlyn was gone and Vlad somehow made it to Paris  _ without  _ the use of the group’s machine, something much worse than what he expected was going on. At least now maybe his friends would be fully sold on the idea of finding Lune and Aquila.

“Is that those superheroes?!” Someone yelled, pointing at the sky. 

Squinting, Reid could see a giant pink laser firing at an angle down the road. There was a faint green light caught in the attack.

“Aaaand… Danny fell.”

“What?!” Sam shouted.

Reid ripped out his earphones and shoved them in his pockets as he ran in the direction of the light. The closer he got, the more people were running the opposite way with worried and fearful looks. A few then pointed out Ladybug and Chat Noir, who were hurrying toward the ghosts. Reid couldn’t keep up with their superhuman speed and lagged behind. But he kept going. 

* * *

Vlad flew higher into the air. Danny charged at him. Before he could get close, Vlad’s fists glowed pink, then a giant pink laser fired from his hands. Danny stopped and formed a green shield, but it quickly shattered from the power of the ghost ray and he was pushed along the painful current. 

It burned Danny and sent agonizing pain through his body. He heard a faint scream from Dani. She called out his name. He couldn’t fly out of the current to help her and instead was drive into the ground, leaving a trail of dirt under the broken pavement. He hit a light post somewhere in the crash. The metal left a part of his back stinging.

The ghost ray stopped. Danny could hear terrified citizens screaming and running away over the sizzling sound coming from his body. It burned. Like he had been thrown into a fire pit. The heat coursed through his body and ignited his blood. He was overheating, which shocked him considering he was a ghost. But attacks from other ghosts affected him differently than normal blows from a human would.

Vlad floated down with a horrifyingly confident grin on his face. He crossed his arms with his cape lightly blowing in the wind, doubling his size. His red eyes believed he had won. And with buildings falling into piles of rubble from Danny’s crash, it would appear as such.

Danny tried standing up to punch the look off of Vlad’s face. But as soon as he moved, Vlad zoomed at him and clutched his shirt, raising him above his head. Danny struggled to escape. His skin tingled and his insides were melting. Almost all of his strength had left him.

Vlad laughed at Danny’s attempts, “You managed to beat me last time, but your luck would only last so long before I could finally  _ destroy you.” _

“You probably could have if you remembered me!” Dani yelled as she charged at Vlad.

Without looking away from Danny, he replied, “I promise you, I haven’t.”

His body stretched apart as a clone detached from his body. The clone quickly rushed at Dani and retrained her. As she struggled, pink electricity engulfed her. Danny yelled her name as she screamed. The electricity stopped. The screaming stopped. But she had fallen unconscious.

Vlad chuckled, “I can take her back and start over on trying to replicate your DNA. But now I wonder if that will be a waste of time considering I currently have you at my mercy.”

Danny growled. He directed all of his strength into his palm. It started to glow a soft green. Vlad hadn’t noticed. He wouldn’t expect it. But neither of them had expected a metal staff to hit Vlad in his head, causing him to lose his grip on Danny.

Danny fell to his knees. He followed the staff as it retracted into a normal size. A teenager dressed in black spandex held the staff. He wore ears and a belt to mimic a cat. Beside him stood a girl the same age wearing red spandex with black spots. Like a ladybug.

They leapt off the roof and landed in front of Danny. The girl wielded a Yoyo and the boy his staff. Danny recognized them from fighting The Box King. They were Ladybug and Chat Noir.

Ladybug shouted something in French. Vlad didn’t react to her words. Then she sighed as if realizing communicating would be a challenge. Luckily, Reid was just catching up with them. 

He shouted in French at Ladybug and Chat Noir, “Vlad’s a ghost too! He’s who we’re after!”

“Got it!” Chat shouted back, “Leave it to me, M’lady!” And he ran in to attack. He occupied Vlad while Ladybug helped Danny up. Reid rushed to them to do the same.

“His copy has Dani,” Danny said through aching grunts.

Reid briefly explained it to Ladybug. She turned to Vlad’s clone holding an unconscious Dani. She nodded and said, “We'll get her back safe,” Then hurried off to fight.

Reid kept Danny on his feet. They watched Chat Noir fight the real Vlad while Ladybug easily got rid of the clone. She held Dani in her arms and hurried back. Dani didn’t have any physical injuries, thankfully. Ladybug gently placed her on the ground beside Reid and Danny.

“You two find a safe place for you and your friend. We can handle this.”

“Wait,” Danny interrupted as Ladybug turned away, “I can help too. I’ve fought Vlad before.”

Reid translated to his best abilities.

“No,” Ladybug said with a firm voice, “You’re injured.”

Reid continued to translate.

“I’m always getting beat up. I’m used to it,” Danny said, “Look! I can move no problem!” He winced as he stretched his back, “And I can fly.” 

Ladybug thought of a response. Chat Noir’s struggle persuaded her.

“Allons-y.”

“Hey I know  _ that _ word!” Danny said before flying off. 

Reid stood back and watched the three of them fight against Vlad. Ladybug and Chat Noir always had such outstanding teamwork. They stood a better chance with Danny’s ghost powers, but speaking different languages would be something to work around. Reid shouted translations as quickly and best he could when he noticed someone struggling. It helped. It kept them from being utterly defeated by Vlad.

During the fight, Dani started to come to. Reid noticed this and crouched and sat on his knees. 

Weakly, Dani asked, “What happened…?”

Reid responded, “Vlad knocked you out, but Danny, Ladybug, and Chat Noir are fighting him now.”

“Ladybug? Chat Noir?” He sprung up. She saw just what Reid had told her. “I have to help them!” She shouted as she ran off.

“No- Wait!” Reid got up and chased her, “Aren’t you hurt?”

“Not as bad as Danny!” She jumped up and took off. Reid stopped running. He sighed and put in his earphones. He called Sam and Tucker, who immediately bombarded him with questions and bursts of frustration.

_ Dani really is Danny’s clone…  _ Reid thought as Sam yelled at him. He continued watching the fight. Ladybug’s yoyo wrapped around Vlad’s arm. Then Danny fired a ghost ray. Vlad flew up to dodge and grabbed the string of the yoyo. He spun in circles until Ladybug lost her grip. Dani hurried and caught her before she crashed. Ladybug thanked her and they returned to the battle.

Dani and Danny fought Vlad in the air. Danny landed a punch hard enough to send him to the ground. Chat Noir took the chance to engage in close combat. Ladybug followed right behind, leaving Vlad without time to use the more powerful onslaught of his powers.

Ladybug threw her yoyo again. Vlad turned intangible and the string wrapped around Chat Noir. Vlad flew off but didn’t get far before Danny and Dani surrounded him.

“What was that about being able to destroy me,” Danny said.

“Obviously with me here, that would be impossible,” Dani added.

Vlad snarled. He fired ghost rays from either hand. Danny dodged, but Dani got hit and fell from the air. Vlad turned to Danny, ready to attack. A yoyo wrapped around his ankle and pulled him to the ground. Danny grabbed the same ankle and helped so Vlad couldn’t turn intangible to escape.

They quickly neared the ground. Dani got up. She asked for Chat Noir’s staff. He understood when she pointed at it and handed it to her. Dani turned back to Vlad and waited until he hit the ground, then shouted for Danny to get out of the way. Once he did, her hand glowed green with ghost energy. The energy spread to the staff. She threw it at Vlad with immense power. It caught onto his cape and flew him into a brick wall. He couldn’t rip his cape from the staff.

The four heroes surrounded him, their shadows cast over his nervous face. Danny clutched Vlad’s shirt. Vlad held his hands in surrender and added a nervous chuckle.

“How did you get into Paris?” Danny asked. His tone was dark and furious.

“I’m a man with money,” Vlad tried a grin, “I bought a plane ticket.”

“Wouldn’t you be busy as the mayor?”

Footsteps approached from behind them. Ladybug and Chat Noir parted for Reid to walk through. “I have some questions too,” He said as he kneeled, “Like where is Lune? And how did you get here? Because I don’t believe your excuse either!” 

“Like a bunch of kids could make me talk.”

Dani’s hands glowed with a sinister look on her face. The light illuminated her face to add an intimidating effect. Danny and Reid slowly turned from her and to Vlad, whose forehead sweat and hands shook. After what he's done, he had a right to fear her.

With a growl, he reluctantly said, “Alright alright! A woman opened a portal for me to travel through.”

“A woman?” Reid asked.

With Vlad hesitant to say more, Dani held up her glowing hand to his face.

“A ghost! She lives in her own world. It’s not like the ghost zone.”

Everyone exchanged looks. Reid translated for Ladybug and Chat Noir. They discussed who this woman could be and what she could want. Danny mentioned chasing a ghost woman once with golden jewelry and Egyptian clothing. Reid remembered as well. They had never seen that ghost before then. 

“It’s a stretch, but it’s possible?” Reid said.

Sam and Tucker were listening through Reid’s earphones. They added their comments and theories. Reid would relay them. As they continued, Vlad had the chance to pull the staff out of the wall. He placed it on the ground and turned intangible. It wasn’t until Ladybug pointed it out when the rest turned around. But they only saw an empty spot where Vlad should be.

Reid growled, “He didn’t even say anything about Lune!”

“Is she that important to you?” Dani asked. 

Reid hesitated. He stuttered out an excuse, “W-well… It would be a big deal for a superhero to go missing. And it was another hero that took her. It’s worrying.”

Understanding the word “Lune” and Reid’s tone of voice, Ladybug and Chat Noir agreed that they would help find Lune too. 

“We’ve been looking for her and Aquila since we defeated the Akuma.” Ladybug said.

Relief eased his pain, but Reid wouldn’t be able to relax until they found Lune safe.

* * *

Lune squirmed to escape Aquila’s grip. He didn’t budge. Jayden approached her. She stared at him with terrified eyes. He stared at her, amused by her fear. With just a glance at Aquila, he let go of one of her arms. She immediately threw a punch, knocking Aquila backward. Jayden grabbed her wrist. She held her fist up.

“Tell me what’s going on,” Lune ordered, “Now! Or I’ll hit you! And I don’t want to!”

“You are a loyal one. Like your kwami,” Jayden said as he pulled off Lune’s bracelet.

She screamed, but she couldn’t get the miraculous back. White light flashed and she was in her normal attire. She couldn’t do anything. The miraculous had her superhuman strength, speed, and agility. Without it, she was only Kaetlyn.

Lunna hung her head low, hovering beside Jayden’s shoulder. He admired the miraculous. He lightly tapped on one of the jewels. Kaetlyn stared at Lunna. Her eyes begged for her kwami to do something. She couldn’t understand. It made no sense.

“You took exceptional care for this miraculous. Except for the missing jewel I suppose,” Jayden said, “You had lost that fifth jewel a long time ago. Yet you never bothered searching for it.”

“Jayden,” Kaetlyn’s words became a cry for help. A beg for mercy. Her words yelled for someone to give her answers. For this to be a nightmare that she could easily wake up from.

Jayden glanced away from the miraculous. Then he smiled as if just realizing he had company.

“Ah, I forgot,” He said, “Aquila, you may take your leave. Maybe look for that man, Vlad Masters, and see if he has defeated Danny Phantom and his friends.”

A portal opened behind Aquila. It revealed the bright sky and clouds. Aquila turned and headed for the portal. Kaetlyn rushed after him. She had to get her friends. Aquila stretched his wings and hit Kaetlyn. She fell backward. Aquila flew out and the portal closed.

“No… I cannot have you leave yet,” Jayden smiled. It sent chills through Kaetlyn. “I have a gift to give.” He took out a jewel. One the same size as those in the miraculous. It had the same color. The same shade of purple. It was the missing jewel.

He held it between his fingers. Staring at it, his eyes glowed. And a dark green spread from his fingertips into the jewel. It took over the jewel. 

“Wait…” Kaetlyn said as he placed the jewel in its spot on the bracelet, “No- Wait- What are you doing?!” Panic edged her voice.

All five jewels glowed once the fifth was placed. One glowed green and four glowed purple. Then two glowed green, then three, then four. The green light stretched out and consumed the purple light of the fifth jewel. Jayden grinned. He looked up and stared at Kaetlyn. Each step he took forward, she took back.

A portal opened behind her. She stopped. It led to miles above the ocean. Kaetlyn turned away from the sight to see Jayden grab her wrist. 

“I would wear this myself,” He said as he slipped the bracelet over her hand, “However, I feel you would do a much better job.”

As soon as the bracelet was around her wrist, Kaetlyn stopped struggling. Her mind became foggy. Her thoughts were broken and messy. A foreign voice spoke to her. A woman’s. But it came from Jayden’s mouth. It gave her orders. It told her a few simple words. And he listened to them.

“Lunna, moon rise.”

Tears formed around Lunna’s eyes as the miraculous sucked her inside. She couldn’t fight against it. She couldn’t fight against her master. And because of that, she controlled Kaetlyn.


	14. My Life, No Alter Ego (Part 2)

Only the steady hum from outside filled the silence in the taxi. Arden’s father hadn’t said anything since they entered the car. And she didn’t feel very talkative. There were too many thoughts in her head to focus on forming a sentence. Reid had appeared so suddenly. He somehow even knew what hospital she was staying in. Then he mentioned something happening to Lune and Aquila, but left without explaining.

She took her phone from her pocket and called Reid. It shouldn’t be too hard to get a hold of him since he was in Paris. The phone rang. And it rang. Arden’s shoulders slumped and she tried not to wince with her father sitting next to her. When the call went to voicemail, she hung up and put her phone away. Resting her head on the window, she couldn’t wait to go home and hide in her room.

* * *

Jayden screamed in frustration. He watched Vlad get beaten by the heroes and run away as soon as he got the chance. He was even stupid enough to give away her existence to the enemy before escaping. 

Ladybug and Chat Noir weren’t supposed to arrive so early. Jayden foolishly put his trust in someone useless! He didn’t properly plan for any alterations in his plan!

The only good so far was that he could finally ditch Hawk Moth. He did not need his Akumas anymore. 

Looking to the side, Jayden stared at Lune and Aquila. They were still, waiting for orders. Neither could break out of his control. 

Jayden didn’t need Hawk Moth’s Akumas anymore. He had two heroes.

A ghost peeled away from Jayden. His brown eyes became green and he fell on his knees. The ghost- The _woman_ floated around the void as she silently went through her plans.

Jayden clumsily got up. His glare could kill.

“I had said I didn’t want to be involved!” Hayden spat.

“If you are wise, you will stop talking,” The woman had a powerful tone fueling her words. She didn’t bother looking at him.

“You’re infuriating.”

“I shall not be spoken to that way!” She stiffened her pose and flew higher to glare down at Jayden. He looked down and crossed his arms.

“You may have status, but you’re _dead._ You don’t rule Egypt anymore, _you’re highness,”_ Jayden mocked the title, “That man you sent after Danny Phantom was too distracted at the idea of beating him, but I figured out who you are. I read about you for a history project,” Jayden dug his fingers into his arms from her terrifying look, “Cleopatra”

The ghost woman glanced his way at the name, but ignored him and turned to Lune and Aquila. She opened a portal behind them and said, “Take out those heroes. And bring me Ladybug and Chat Noir’s miraculouses.”

With blank faces, they bowed and rushed out of the portal. When they left, the portal closed. And Cleopatra flew away from Jayden.

* * *

The group had split up. Danny and Dani flew with Reid in one direction. Ladybug and Chat Noir traveled in the other. That woman Vlad mentioned had something to do with the incident between Aquila and Lune. No one had any leads, but Ladybug said she knew someone who could help before splitting up. Hopefully, they would.

Reid checked all social media platforms he owned and more, hoping to find anything about Lune or Aquila the past few hours. The internet was filled with the video showing Aquila fly off with Lune. So many comments and so many news reports about a video barely a minute long. Reid started to think he knew more than the public.

"Who's that?" Dani asked. The boys followed her gaze to the air. Something dark flew through the air. It was later in Paris than it was in Amity. The sky was darker and made it difficult to make out any features of the person, but there's only one human that could fly like a bird.

Aquila folded his wings and dived at the group. The ghost abruptly stopped and avoided Aquila running into them. He stretched his wings out and let the air push against his metal wings, slowing him to a stop from hitting the ground. He looked up at the group. His eyes didn't focus on them. His face gave no hint of emotion. Something was wrong.

* * *

“It looks like we have some other heroes to help us, M’lady,” Chat said as he and Ladybug leaped from roof to roof.

“I know…”

“Hm? What’s wrong?”

Ladybug stopped. So did Chat Noir. He waited for an answer.

“I thought Lune returned to Paris. We’ve met ‘Danny Phantom’ before but now that I think about it, how can he get to Paris so quickly if he’s from America?”

Chat couldn’t come up with an answer.

“I can’t help but feel there’s something going on. Barely anything makes sense.”

Chat’s look went from worried to defensive. He held his staff and pointed it at Ladybug. She turned around and saw Lune standing there. She stared at them, but her eyes were unfocused. Her face was blank and frozen.

Ladybug spun her yoyo. Both were ready to fight. Lune held her arm out to the side. White light glowed and stretched from her hand. As the light dimmed, it left behind a large metal hammer in Lune’s hand. One taller than a person. She grabbed the handle with both hands and swung it at Ladybug and Lune. They dodged just before it hit the roof, leaving cracks and a dent in the roof. It made the building shake.

“How is she wielding that?”

“We have worse things to worry about, Kitty!”

Lune swept the hammer at them. They jumped away. Chat extended his staff and swung it across.

“Get a taste of your own medicine!”

The staff hit her side. It pushed her off of the roof, but she held onto the handle of her hammer over the edge. The weight balanced hers. She swung up, picking up the hammer as she landed on the roof.

Ladybug’s yoyo wrapped around her arms and tied them together. “What are you doing, Lune? We’re not the enemy!” Ladybug’s words didn’t reach her.

Lune pulled against Ladybug and spun, running Ladybug into Chat. The yoyo unraveled and the two heroes fell down the building. Ladybug threw her yoyo at a lamp post and stopped their fall. The string unraveled and they fell from inches above the pavement.

Lune landed in front of them. With no emotion, she raised her hammer above her head. Chat and Ladybug rolled out of the way before it hit the floor. The yoyo wrapped around Lune’s ankles. Ladybug pulled the string and Lune fell.

“Midnight Howl,” Lune said monotonously. Before Ladybug reacted, Lune’s deafening howl blew her down the road. She lost grip of the yoyo.

“LADYBUG!” Chat cried out.

* * *

Aquila dodged the ghost rays from Danny and Dani. He charged at them in the air and stretched his wings, hitting the ghosts and running them into a building. Rubble fell to the ground. Clouds of smoke slowly dispersed from the crash site. Aquila flew out. He scanned the area until he locked eyes with Reid hiding by a bench. Reid’s heart jumped when he did.

As Aquila resided to charge, Danny landed a punch on his jaw. Aquila spun around and returned the punch. Danny turned intangible. The fist phased through his face. Aquila took off and Danny followed, firing ghost rays at him.

“Reid? What’s going on?” Tucker asked from the earphones.

“Uh… W-we found Aquila,” Reid watched the aerial battle between Aquila and Danny.

“Really?” Sam asked, “That was quick.”

“It would be since he’s the one chasing us…”

“What?!” Sam and Tucker exclaimed together.

“I don’t know. He’s hunting us down but I don’t think he knows he’s doing it,” Reid said, “He’s not acting normal.”

Danny dodged all of Aquila’s attacks. He started firing his own and Aquila flew back. He took out his bow and plucked a metal feather from his wings. Danny bolted for Aquila as he loaded the bow. When Aquila fired, Danny turned intangible. But it still hit him.

In an instant, all of his strength left him. Danny became woozy and exhausted. It became harder to stay in the air. Aquila only stood there and watched as Danny fell to the ground.

“Danny!” Reid shouted.

Light flashed and Danny was a human again. Reid leaped over the bench and raced towards Danny. He couldn’t make it in time. He wasn’t fast enough. And he felt horrible when he forgot about Dani. She swooped in and caught him at the last second. Reid stopped running and caught his breath. Dani carefully lay him on the bench. Reid hurried back to them.

“What’s wrong?” Sam asked, “Reid? Hey!”

Reid then realized he was being spoken to, “Sorry, sorry. Danny’s fine. He’s just out for a while.

“That’s it. We’re coming over.”

“What? No, we can handle this.”

“Obviously not if Danny was beaten.”

Then nothing. Reid said Sam’s name, then Tucker’s. He checked the earphones. They disconnected.

* * *

Lune chased them through the streets. Ladybug leaped onto the top of a light post while Lune went after Chat on the ground. She summoned her Lucky Charm. A sculpture of a stone turtle fell into her hands.

“Any ideas on what to do with it?” Chat called as he dodged Lune’s hammer.

Examining it, Ladybug couldn’t think of anything it could be useful for. Then if she couldn’t use it, maybe it was meant for something else? She’s had lucky charms that were meant to-

“That’s it,” Ladybug murmured, “Chat Noir! Can you distract Lune for a while?”

Before he could reply, Lune threw her hammer at the light post. It bent the metal and Ladybug fell. Chat jumped and caught her.

“Of course, bugaboo. Anything for mew!”

“What did I say about using that nickname?” 

Lune picked up her hammer and readied for another attack. As she lifted the weapon over her shoulder, her bracelet started to beep. The second green jewel had stopped glowing.

“I can last for three minutes. You do what you have to,” Chat told Ladybug as he readied his staff.

Ladybug thanked him before throwing her yoyo and swinging away. But Lune dropped her hammer and leaped up to snag the string. She pulled Ladybug down. Chat Noir extended his staff and pole-vaulted to high kick Lune. Ladybug landed safely on the ground and Lune hit the floor in pain.

“Cataclysm!” Chat shouted. Black energy bubbled in his hand. He darted for the hammer and swiped his hand across it. It turned to rust and crumbled into nothing.

“Nice work!” Ladybug praised.

Lune rammed her elbow into Chat Noir’s stomach, sending him back. He grunted from the impact. Lune ran after him. From a roof, Ladybug’s yoyo tied her hands together before she could attack. Ladybug pulled her across the road.

Lune stood up and began tug-of-war with the string. Ladybug wasn’t strong enough and fell down, the string falling over a light post and cocooning Ladybug. 

Chat extended his staff at Lune, but she jumped away then untied her hands. She held onto the end of the string and stared blankly at Chat. He stood defensively and spun his staff to block any potential attacks.

He waited until Lune bolted for him. As she curved around him, he swiped his staff to trip her. But she jumped over and quickly changed direction. She ran circles around him too quickly to react. Chat dropped his staff and Lune and cocooned him in the string like she did Ladybug. The string retracted and dragged him to hang upside down from the same light post Ladybug hung from.

They were trapped. Unable to move. Lune picked up Chat Noir’s staff with one hand. She walked towards them. The walk turned into a speed walk. Then into a jog. Then into a sprint. She readied the staff and would have hit them if a green next didn’t catch her.

Lune tripped over the net and struggled to claw her way free. The net had rope leading further down the street. It was connected to a gun that had launched the net, which was held by a teenaged girl with goth clothing and a short black ponytail. A boy in a yellow shirt and red hat ran ahead to free Chat Noir and Ladybug.

“I thought we’d find Danny and the others,” Sam said to Tucker.

“It’s hard tracking Danny’s ghost-energy when he’s thousands of miles away.”

The yoyo was untangled and retracted back into Ladybug’s yoyo. The French heroes hit the ground but faced no major injuries.

“But what do we do with Lune?” Tucker asked.

“I don’t know… They were having trouble with Aquila too,” Sam said.

“We can’t do anything if we have to make sure Lune doesn’t escape.”

“Merci, vous deux,” Ladybug said. Sam and Tucker exchanged looks. Then looked at Lune trapped in the net. Their only translator was broken.

* * *

Dani was good, but her skills weren’t enough to fight Aquila. She had more bruises than him. She suffered more injuries than him. Aquila lost his bow, but he could still overpower her. And Reid couldn’t do anything. 

Sam and Tucker wouldn’t pick up. He had no powers or gear. He couldn’t do anything but make sure Danny stayed a safe distance away from the fight. He couldn’t even call an ambulance.

Dani threw a powerful punch, then a kick. Both landed and left bruises, but Aquila didn’t react in pain. It was like he was numb to any wounds given to him. But he reacted to the world around him. To an extent.

Reid threw a small piece of rubble at Aquila. Then he threw a second one. Aquila turned to Reid. He was a marionette. Dani fired a ghost ray and Aquila flew into a building. She zoomed for him. Aquila flew at her with the same speed.

_That was really all I could do…_

Being a human was useless. Being a human without superpowers was worse. They needed help.

Arden ate a snack at the dining table. Her head still hurt, but it was manageable. The TV played behind her. Her mother always watched the news when her friend was on as the anchor. But it wasn’t her friend’s voice that spoke. It was a different woman. Arden didn’t pay attention to it until she heard her mother’s gasps and soft “Oh no.”

Arden turned and watched the screen. From a helicopter, a woman reported the incident the cameraperson recorded.

“It seems Aquila is fighting a young girl that could be an Akuma. Stay indoors until further notice...we...this…”

Arden tuned the voice out when she saw a boy in orange on the side of the screen. He seemed panicked. The boy was Reid.

At the hospital, he said something happened to Lune and Aquila. Were they fighting and Akuma?

Reid only watched Aquila and the girl fight. Aquila was winning, which should be a good thing. That’s what Arden assumed until Reid threw rocks at Aquila, letting the girl attack. Reid couldn’t have been akumatized. He knew who the heroes were. After how he acted in the hospital, Arden couldn’t help but worry.

She stared at her mother. Her eyes were glued on the screen. Then Arden stared at the door. Last time, she got a concussion. And it must have rattled something the wrong way because Arden slowly rose from her chair and quietly went for the door. She opened it just enough to slide through and closed it silently.

Arden had no idea what to do, but this wasn’t about her wallet. This involved her friend. She had to do it for Reid. She didn’t want to fail again. She couldn’t.

Dani crashed into the ground. She rolled out of the way of Aquila's fist and spun kick to hit his side. He lunged and caught her. She turned intangible and slipped away. She flew into the air and fired more ghost rays. All of them missed.

Aquila zoomed after her. He caught her and kicked her to the ground before she could phase out again.

"Dani!" Reid wailed.

Aquila floated to the hole the impact from Dani's crash had made. She didn't rise to attack him. It pained her to move.

Reid ran at Aquila, who stared at the defeated Dani. He didn't know what he was doing. He wasn't himself. But Reid had to stop him. He yelled as he got closer. He clenched his jaw and gritted his teeth. He tightened his fist and threw a punch. Aquila glanced up and reacted instantaneously.

He grabbed Reid's fist and threw him to the ground. Reid grunted when he hit the ground. He jumped back up and threw another sloppy punch. Aquila ducked and hit his side, then his abdomen. Reid coughed and kneeled. He wrapped his arms around his torso. Aquila picked Reid up by his collar. He couldn't break free of Aquila's grip.

Aquila balled his hand into a fist and pulled his arm back. His eyes stared into Reid. His emotionless brown eyes focused on Reid. Only for a moment. Then it became an uneasy gaze.

Reid cringed, turning his head away from Aquila's fist while still trying to pry his hand open. Nothing worked. Aquila threw his arm forwards.

"A-Aquila!"

He stopped inches away from Reid's face. He turned his head. Reid followed his gaze to see Arden staring at them in horror. But she couldn't run away. She had already brought attention to her. 

"Y-y-yeah!" She shouted, "I said your name...!"

Aquila kept his eyes on her. He dropped Reid and bolted for Arden.

"No- Stop!"

Arden's wide eyes noticed the arms cuffs Aquila wore as he reached out for her. He took her and flew off.

_His miraculous._

Arden couldn't move. She couldn't breathe. She tried pushing him away just to get a full breath of air. But he let her go completely and watched her fall. Arden instinctively reached out for his arm and caught one arm cuff. It slid off and she continued falling.

Her screams echoed. She didn't know how high they were. She could hit the ground at any minute, but at least she helped.

Aquila fell unconscious as soon as the cuff slid off. He fell with her, a golden light slowly traveling across his body. Only half of his mask covered his face. It was the last face Arden would see. And it seemed familiar. She couldn't understand it, but she knew his face.

The roofs of buildings came into view. Fear took over her shock and she shrieked. Everything became silent.

It was dark. It was quiet. It had been accepted.

A soft wind blew. That was when Arden opened her eyes. A boy with white hair and in black spandex carried her bridal style. He looked beaten and exhausted. But he made sure to land safely.

Arden stood up and looked at him. Her eyes traveled along his arm to the arm he held. He had saved Aquila.

"Merci..."

The boy didn't react to her thanks and instead let go of Aquila before collapsing himself. Reid jogged up to them and said something in English. The boy gave him a thumbs up with his face in the ground.

Reid turned to Arden and asked, "Are you okay?! Why did you do that?"

"I-I..." She stared at his face. It was scraped from hitting the pavement. "I saw you on the news. You seemed... worried at the hospital so I thought-"

"Thank you."

"Huh?"

"Thank you so much for helping us."

Arden stopped. She had been useful for once. She didn't watch on the sideline. She didn’t rely on others. She actually did something to help them. 

Reid took the arm cuff from Arden’s hand.

“What’s this?” He asked.

“Oh. Uhm,” She sniffed, “It was Aquila’s. He has another one.”

Reid followed Arden’s finger to Aquila -still unconscious- on the ground. The light dimmed where his detransformation stopped. Half of his mask was gone. Reid seemed to recognize his face too.

He stomped toward him and snatched the other arm cuff. The outfit had been replaced with a green coat and gray pants. The black hair was covered in a beanie. The same one Kaetlyn gave to him.

He moaned as he awoke. As if it was only a bad dream that roused him. Reid kneeled and picked him up by the collar.

“Where’s Lune!”

“...Mm…?”

Reid shook him, “You took her! What did you do with her!”

“Reid! Leave Xack alone!” Arden hurried over and kneeled beside Reid, “I know you don’t like him but he wasn’t himself!”

“You only just got here!”

“I’ve known him for years! He’s my _best friend!_ He wouldn’t hurt anyone!”

“Look at what he did to me and _my_ friends!”

Xack sluggishly grabbed Reid’s arm, “I didn’t want to,” His voice was gravelly, “It… It was fuzzy. Someone told me to do it.”

“Who?!” Reid’s eyes burned.

“It was in my head. I couldn’t control myself,” He said, “Now can you shut up? Your voice is annoying.”

Arden placed her hand on Reid’s. He let go and stared at the floor. Xack was mind-controlled. It had to be the same woman that sent Vlad after them.

“Reid? Hey.”

Reid left his thoughts and looked for the body to the voice. Then he realized it was Sam speaking to him from his earphones.

“Y-yeah… I’m here…” He stood up and walked until he was out of earshot. 

Arden stayed by Xack. She couldn’t think of anything to say. 

Xack saw this and said, “I guess you want to know how I got a miraculous?”

Arden nodded.

While Xack answered her questions, Reid made sure to speak low as he said, “We stopped Aquila. Thanks to a friend. Where are you guys?”

“Me and Tucker just helped capture Lune. We don’t know what to do.”

Reid glanced back at Xack. He laid on his back and spoke casually to Arden. Then he glanced at Danny. He stayed in his ghost form as he rested.

“What exactly is Lune doing…?”

“She was fighting Ladybug and Chat Noir. She would have beat them if we didn’t show up.”

His eyebrows creased, “Then she’s being controlled too…”

“We don’t know how to fix that.”

Reid paused. Answering would mean revealing her identity. But she would at least be out of that woman’s control. 

“You... need to take her miraculous. Ladybug or Chat Noir might know what it is.”

“Okay. Thanks,” Sam paused, “And how’s Danny?”

Reid let out a weak chuckle, “He’s fine now. We all need a rest is all.”

“Come meet us after you handle Lune…”

Then he hung up.


	15. My Life, No Alter Ego (Finale)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello! Sorry the chapter is a day late. It took longer than expected to write and a few unexpected things came up. Hope you understand and hope you enjoy the chapter!

Sam hung up on Reid. On his side, they had just defeated Aquila. She turned to Tucker, Chat Noir, and Ladybug. Lune was trapped in a net from the Fenton Grappler Sam held in her hands. 

“So what did Reid say?” Tucker asked.

Sam looked at him, then to Lune. She said, “Danny’s okay. They stopped Aquila by taking his miraculous off of him.”

“Wait, just revealing his identity like that? We can’t do that!”

“She won’t go back to normal any other way.”

Tucker sighed. He and Sam watched Lune. She couldn’t say anything beyond grunts as she struggled to tear her way through the net. Her eyes looked around, but didn’t focus on anything; Like she was constantly in distant thought.

Vlad had mentioned a woman when Danny and the other heroes fought him. Hawk Moth couldn’t do something like what they witnessed from Lune. It had to be the doing of that woman.

Tucker walked toward Lune, who didn’t stop attempting to break free when he stopped in front of her. He locked his eyes onto her bracelet. The five jewels on it were green. He never paid attention to her miraculous, but something told him the picture was off.

He reached out for Lune’s forearm. Ladybug and Chat Noir exclaimed something in French. Judging by their faces, they were hesitant as well. But Tucker held his other hand out to take the bracelet.

A portal opened behind Lune and human hands grabbed the net and dragged her in. 

“No!”

“Non!”

They all shouted.

Brown eyes stared at them from inside before the portal closed.

* * *

Reid sat against a wall. Danny sat beside him and Dani floated around them. Arden and Xack were further down the sidewalk, sitting and talking. Since having four attacks in one day, Paris has pretty much been staying indoors.

Danny and Dani stayed silent. Danny was beaten and exhausted. All of his energy drained. It was tiring to stay in his ghost form, but the news would travel fast if anyone outside of his friends knew his identity. Even if everyone stayed indoors, he couldn’t risk anything.

Dani had scrapes and bruises as well. It hurt to move too much. The pavement made her body ache when she sat down. So she stays still as she hovers near the group.

Reid glared at Xack. Questions overflowed his mind. His brain was about to short circuit. It didn’t make sense for Xack to become a hero. He had no heroic qualities. He stood there and annoyed Reid intentionally when they, Arden, and Kaetlyn were all in Paris. He never went out of his way to help others.

“Reid, you look awful.”

The words brought Reid to Earth. He turned to Danny.

“I think I’ll do fine,” He said, “Compared to you at least.”

“Yeah…”

Then silence took a seat between them. And Arden’s and Xack’s words from the distance filled the air. 

Until Tucker called Reid through the earphones.

“Reid, can you send us a pic of where you are? A street name or something?”

“Oh… Sure. What about Lune?”

“Uh… We’ll talk about that when we reach you guys.”

“What happened to her…?” Reid began to stand up. Dani and Danny watched him, concerned.

“Nothing bad! We just… lost her?”

“ _ What.” _

__ “Tell us where you are so we can give you the full story!” Tucker started to talk faster. 

Reid worked with Tucker and Sam to get them to where he was. He couldn’t show too much concern about Lune or they’d ask questions. He’d just have to wait until they arrived to ask questions

  
  


* * *

Cleopatra scowled. All but one soldier had been defeated, but her enemies were weakened. She couldn’t leave any room for error. Her next few actions had to be properly organized and executed.

Lune stood still. She lost her weapon and her miraculous beeped. Cleopatra could use the time it took to regain Lunna’s energy to prepare.

* * *

Everyone exchanged their sides of the story and what they’ve learned. Reid’s tongue started to go numb from being the translator. He never had to speak in two languages so much at a time. More questions were raised from Xack’s and Arden’s appearances. Reid started to become desperate for answers regarding Lune.

“Everyone be quiet!” Dani yelled, and everyone listened, “We can’t do anything about Lune right now.”

Reid translated. 

The group stayed silent in their thoughts until Tucker said, “What about that guy with the wings? He was under the ghost woman’s control.”

Everyone turned to Xack. He became visibly uncomfortable from all the eyes.

When Reid translated for him, Xack said, “I don’t know that much. Everything was dreamlike under that ghost’s control, but all I know is that she plans to get rid of all of you,” He gestured to Ladybug, Chat Noir, Danny, and Dani, “I don’t know how.”

“I guess it’s  _ something,”  _ Chat Noir said.

“It is,” Ladybug responded. She walked over to the arm cuffs left on the floor and examined them, “I don’t recognize this miraculous, but I know someone who might. I’ll see what I can learn.”

Her earrings started to beep. She only had a few minutes left. Reid began paraphrasing for the people from America as she swung away on her yoyo. She could make it to Master Fu’s before her five minutes were up. 

Before she could, however, the golden arm cuffs began crumbling and blowing away with the wind. Ladybug gasped and stopped. She tightened her grip around the cuffs, but they didn’t stop until they were completely gone. 

She watched the golden dust blow away into nothing. Master Fu  _ must  _ know something. Otherwise, Paris could be in danger.

* * *

Chat Noir’s ring beeped frantically. He excused himself and found a hiding spot to recharge, leaving the rest to think about what to do next. Sam, Tucker, Dany, and Dani threw around ideas. Reid listened. Half-listened. 

Something tapped on his shoulder. It was Arden, asking for him to translate.

“Oh,” He looked at his friends, then back to Arden, “It’s nothing important.”

They haven't said anything worthwhile. And Reid was too worried over Lune to pay attention. They had to find her soon, then save her. Hopefully, he could find a way to take her miraculous without revealing her identity to the rest of the group.

“We should leave, Arden.”

Both she and Reid turned to Xack.

“What? After all that’s happened?” Arden approached him. She searched his eyes for answers.

“It’s dangerous. It’s better we go home.”

“No!” Arden stomped her foot in protest, “I’m not letting other people take care of things anymore!”

Xack had an impatient look. He glanced at Reid, who turned around and pretended to pay attention to the others.

“This isn’t an Akuma,” Xack’s words were hushed, “You saw what she did... What she made me almost do to you!”

“Oh, don’t even start that! You’re in more danger than me! You’re the one this person can use!”

Words left him, “Not- not- not- not anymore…” What stayed was murmured and uncertain.

Reid tuned out the conversation from there. He knew Arden would win. 

He listened to his friend’s conversation. Ideas were becoming slim and illogical. They didn’t have anything. If they did, they’d have to wait until Ladybug returned with information about Xack’s miraculous.

“I’m back!” Chat Noir announced as he hopped onto the ground from the roof. Everyone focussed on him, frequently glancing back at Reid. 

Knowing what those looks meant, he said, “We don’t know what to do. Not unless Ladybug comes back with something interesting.”

“Then we’ll have to wait for her. I have no doubt that she’ll come up with something,” Chat Noir smiled, “She always does.”

Then he saw Arden and Xack, excused himself from the conversation, and went to take them back to their homes. Arden made sure they would stay.

“Reid, know any place with good food?” Tucker asked.

Reid shrugged, “A few, but I don’t think we have time to-”

Something huge flew between them. Everyone jumped back, staring at the large, blocky hammer that smashed a hole through the wall. Their eyes shot to Danny’s shout. Lune had her arm around his neck, backing up from the group.

A light flashed as Danny transformed into a ghost, but not before a portal opened beneath their feet and swallowed Lune and Danny.

It dropped them at the base of the Eiffel Tower. Tourists and civilians backed away, curiosity telling them to stay and watch. 

Another portal opened above Lune, her hammer falling through and landing beside her. She picked it with both hands. As soon as she swung it at Danny, the audience screamed and scattered.

Danny turned intangible to avoid the attack, then threw a punch. Lune blocked it. He flew to one of the beams of the tower. Aquila did serious damage to him. He couldn’t win with strength alone.

Lune stared at him and regripped the handle. She began spinning in circles, her hammer picking up wind. Danny readied to fly away, anticipating when she would attack. She released the handle and let it fly at Danny. He bolted toward the ground and avoided the hammer, but it instead left a dent in one of the tower’s legs. He started to wonder how heavy the hammer actually was.

Lune ran for the weapon. Danny charged at her and lifted her from the ground. But a hit to his nose and he lost his grip. Lune fell and slid down a tower’s leg to stand on one of the metal beams. 

He charged at her but missed when she jumped to another beam. It became a game of chase through the Eiffel Tower. Though the pursuer would change at random moments. One would throw their hits and the other would either block, dodge, or get hit. 

Danny started to run out of breath. He hovered in place, waiting for Lune to show up. He heard the thumps of footsteps on metal, but couldn’t find the person making them. It was above him, then the side, then the other side, then below him.

It made his heart race having to wait so long for something to happen. It became worse when all of the sounds stopped. Silence scared off its opposite, which made Danny worry. He held his breath as he listened.

Nothing, so he listened a little longer.

And a little longer.

Longer.

Until he heard something scraping against concrete. Below him was Lune picking up her hammer.

“No!” He let out.

Lune leaped to a beam and threw her hammer at him. In a panic, Danny held out his hands and ice shot from his palms. The force from the ice slowed the hammer down and the weight of the ice dragged it back to the ground. When it crashed, it left a mess of broken concrete and shards of ice.

Danny stared at his hands, saying, “I.... honestly forgot I could do that.”

Lune jumped at him. He flew away and shot ice at her feet, making her unable to move from the metal beam. She bent down and tried breaking the ice with her fist. It didn’t work.

Danny saw her bracelet on her wrist: Her miraculous.

“Sorry, but I need to take that,” He said as he flew towards her. She saw him and readied to punch him, but he grabbed her bracelet and she instead grabbed his forearm.

“Huh?!”

It was enough to pull her free. She tried swinging a punch as she hung from his arm. He easily avoided it and pried her hand off of him, taking the bracelet as she fell. He would have congratulated himself if eyes didn’t shoot wide open at the face of the person he just fought. 

_ Kaetlyn. _

He dropped the miraculous and bolted for her.

She fell so fast. And they were so close to the ground. 

He wasn’t sure he would make it. He feared what would happen if he didn’t catch her.

It didn’t seem like he would.

She kept falling no matter how far he stretched out his arms.

The ground quickly grew bigger.

And bigger and bigger and bigger.

And Danny’s hand grew closer and closer and closer to hers.

And just before she hit the ground, 

He caught her.

Relief came over him like a wave.  _ Now  _ he could celebrate.

He slowed down and gently flew back to the miraculous. He placed her on the ground and took the miraculous, examining the five ghostly green jewels on it.

It was green almost like Danny’s eyes. It couldn’t have been made like is, could it? Something in his parents’ lab might have an answer to that question.

A small sickly moan took Danny’s attention away from the jewelry and directed towards a small white… thing. It had the tail and ears of the wolf with topaz eyes. And it looked ill.

Ladybug and Chat Noir would know more, but Danny would have to regroup first. He didn’t know where he was before being taken to the Eiffel Tower and it would take forever to fly through every street to find his friends.

While thinking, his gaze landed on Kaetlyn. He still couldn’t believe it. It made sense now that he found out, but he still couldn’t understand how his friend, Kaetlyn Shire could have been a superhero for so long. He couldn’t get mad from keeping her secret. He wasn’t sure about telling her his identity either.

Wait… Kaetlyn had her phone on her. Danny checked her jacket pockets and found her phone, but realized he didn’t know the passcode. 

Defeat danced around him as he thought of another way to get ahold of his friends. He could blast a big ghost ray from the tower like a beacon, but thinking about it, he was too weak from two fights to do that…

Then he remembered he had his phone.

Checking the area, no one was around. So he changed into his human form and took his phone from his pocket, calling Tucker.

After Danny took Reid’s directions and got lost, Sam spelled out the name of one of the shops they stood buy and he put it in the GPS on his phone.

Now… All there was to worry about was how the group would react to Kaetlyn being Lune.

* * *

Sam, Tucker, and Arden had… loud reactions. Ladybug and Chat Noir were hard to read, but not as much as Xack. Reid didn’t react any way Danny could have expected. He had no shock or surprise. He seemed almost sad.

Concern took over when he asked, “Why is she still asleep?” in French. Without a response, he turned his head to Xack.

“What?” He asked defensively.”

“Why is Kaetlyn still asleep? You woke up within _seconds!”_

__ “I don’t know.”

“What do you mean you don’t know?!”

“I. Don’t. Know.”

“Stop it!” Arden got between them, “The kwami is waking up.”

“Kwami?” Both boys asked.

She pointed to Ladybug, who had a little white animal in her cupped hands. Everyone gathered around it, watching it as it groaned and lazily opened its eyes. It gasped when realizing Kaetlyn had de-transformed.

It started to freak out. Wide eyes glancing at each face and curling up in fear. Ladybug took a step back from the circle of people and tried calming it down.

Xack and Reid stared at Arden with questioning looks.

“I read the Ladyblog a lot.”

Xack was still confused.

“I show it to you later.”

Reid was more interested in what the kwami had to say. Chat Noir leaned over Ladybug’s shoulder as they talked.

“Hi, I’m Ladybug,” She said, “We were hoping you could tell us anything about the person that’s been behind all of these attacks.”

“Oh, uh…” The kwami had a female voice, “I-I can’t tell you…”

“What? Why not?” Chat asked.

“I’m… I’m loyal to my master. I can’t say anything she won’t let me.”

“‘Master?’” Ladybug echoed, “Wouldn’t that be Kae- er… That girl?”

The kwami shook her head.

Reid walked up to the kwami, still in Ladybug’s hands, and begged, “Please… At least tell us how to wake up Kaetlyn.”

“I-I don’t know how…” The kwami’s ears drooped, “She’s supposed to wake up from my master’s mind control after the miraculous is taken off. It could be the tainted jewels that’s keeping her from waking up.”

Reid looked back at Danny. He asked to see the miraculous. Danny took it out and handed it to him. The jewels were the same green as Danny’s powers. 

“The ghost woman had messed with the miraculous. Ecto-energy or something,” Reid said in English.

“So how do we fix it?” Tucker asked.

“Oh! My parents have a Ghost Catcher. It can separate whatever the woman did to it from the bracelet,” Danny said.

“We can take you to the portal,” Sam told Danny.

“You left it on this whole time?”

“Don’t worry. I can pay for the electricity bill.”

Reid explained the plan in French while Danny and Sam left to hopefully fix the miraculous. Ladybug didn’t say anything against the plan. They didn’t have many other options to choose from.

* * *

Cleopatra’s body would have burned if she were still alive. All of her soldiers had been defeated. They failed her. But the enemy was separated.

She would have to only worry about Ladybug, Chat Noir, and the small ghost girl. The others were unimportant.

She turned back to Jayden, who’s fear started to show. His anger and frustration started to run low.

Cleopatra started to chuckle. The wicked sound echoed in the void. After obtaining the ladybug and cat miraculouses, she would be tied to the dark beast’s stomach no longer.

* * *

“I’m just realizing, shouldn’t Danny and Sam have taken Kaetlyn with them?” Tucker asked. Reid paused, realizing it would be better if she was in America.

“I- I’m sure it will be fine,” He said, mostly to reassure himself.

They just had to wait. They had no idea of the woman’s capabilities, so it would be better not to split up.

And Reid was content with the decision, especially when the ground started to shake. No- It was the buildings. They were sinking!

“Is anyone inside?!” Reid exclaimed in French.

Ladybug stared at him with horrified eyes, “I don’t know…!”

Reid shared the same look. Ladybug, Chat Noir, Dani, Reid, Tucker, Arden, And Xack stayed close to one another, watching the earth swallow every building around them. The mouths were circular and lined with a green glow. Just like the portals Lune and Aquila traveled through.

When each building was eaten whole, the portal closed, leaving a large space. No place to hide, nothing to use in self-defense. They were vulnerable.

“Look!” Arden shouted, pointing at a boy a little older than them.

“Wait…” Reid recognized his jersey, “That’s… Jayden?”

His lips curved into a toothy smirk.

“No. I am simply using this body,” He spoke in French, “This boy informed me I was written into history. I’m interested in what you people know of me.”

Everyone stayed silent. It displeased him.

“You seem to be less knowledgeable,” He put his hand on his chest, “ _ I  _ am Cleopatra! Pharaoh of Egypt!”

“Cleopatra?” Dani asked.

“He-  _ She  _ is Cleopatra,” Reid explained, “It’s the ghost of Cleopatra possessing Jayden from Casper.”

“That doesn’t sound good…” Tucker commented.

Jayden’s hand glowed green. A portal opened beneath Ladybug and Chat Noir. They fell through and ended up on the other side of Paris. Dani’s flight saved her from the same outcome.

Reid instinctively looked back where Kaetlyn lied. He pushed past the others to run to her. Xack followed him. Arden looked back at Dani and Tucker, who were ready to fight Cleopatra. She decided to follow Xack and Reid.

Reid kneeled to pick up Kaetlyn as he said, “We need to get out of here. We’re all collateral damage.”

Xack scooped Kaetlyn up bridal style and said, “We agree just this once,” And hurried ahead. Reid scowled, but followed him. Arden kept up with them.

“Ready to fight?” Dani asked Tucker.

His shaky voice replied with, “Y-yeah! Even though this is completely different from other ghosts I’ve fought…” 

Jayden had a terrifying glare. One of his hands glowed green again and a portal swallowed Tucker. He ended up in a random place in Paris.

“I have no use for useless soldiers,” He said in English

Dani held her arms up to cover her face, “Planning on using me like you used the others?”

“If I do not crush you by the end of this, perhaps.”

His hands glowed and he jumped down a portal. Many more appeared in all angles around Dani. Jayden jumped from one, hit Dani, and disappeared in another. He kept popping out and falling into random ones at random times. Each hit hurt more than the last. Dani couldn’t keep up. 

She blasted a ghost ray through one portal and it appeared out of another and burned her shoulder. She grunted in pain and placed her hand over the wound.

Jayden leaped out of a portal and kicked Dani. The portals vanished as she fell forwards.

“Pity. You are still weak from your last battle.”

He bent down to reach Dani. A spotted yoyo wrapped around his wrist. He looked up. Ladybug and Chat Noir made their return sooner than expected…

“Sorry! But the party ends here!” Ladybug said as she swooped in.

“As royalty, I thought you would know how to throw more fun parties,” Chat Noir added.

Dani smiled. She stood up and rolled her shoulder. Now it was a more fair fight.

* * *

Lunna stayed hidden in Kaetlyn’s hood. She stayed silent and melancholy. Kaetlyn’s friends cared for her so much. Arden and Xack didn’t know her as long as Lunna had, and Reid and Kaetlyn struggled in the past. Yet they were all better friends than Lunna could ever be. 

_ “Lunna, I am the bearer of your miraculous. You listen to me and me only.”  _

Cleopatra's words from so many years ago still echoed in her head. She was her true master. That couldn’t change unless Cleopatra was defeated, but she wouldn’t be. She couldn’t be…

Xack slowed down, so Arden and Reid did as well. They all stopped, breathing heavily.

“I think we’re far enough,” Xack said.

“I think so,” Arden took a breathe, “too.”

Xack stared at Kaetlyn, gripping her shoulders tighter. his eyes were watering.

“Put her down.”

He looked at Reid.

“Put her down,” He said again.

With a dark look, Xack gently placed Kaetlyn on the ground. Reid sat down, content. Arden sat on her legs, her hands clutching to the hem of her skirt.

“Will she be okay…?” She asked.

“Once Danny and Sam fix her miraculous, she should be back to normal,” Reid replied.

“How can her bracelet being broken affect her health?” Xack questioned.

Lunna popped her head out of Kaetlyn’s hood and shyly said, “M-miraculouses are magical. They’re very powerful.”

Xack turned to Lunna, “...And?”

“Uh… A-and… miraculouses are capable of many things.”

Arden leaned closer to Lunna, “I’ve never seen a kwami up close before… What’s your name?”

Lunna hesitated, but decided it wouldn’t be harmful to give basic introductions, “...Lunna.”

Arden smiled, “That’s pretty,” She couldn’t hide the sadness in her words. The weight couldn’t be moved, so she tried finding something to distract her from lifting it.

Reid took the silence as his turn to speak, “Lunna, can you tell us what you know about Cleopatra.”

“I’m not supposed to.”

“Why not?” His voice started to burn with impatience.

“Be-be-because she won’t let me!”

Arden tried calming Reid and Lunna down, keeping the shouting to a minimum. In a soft voice, she said to Lunna, “But you’re not with her. You’re safe with us.”

Lunna stared at the floor. They wouldn’t understand. Cleopatra was her master. She controlled her and could easily open a portal to them. Lunna wasn’t safe at all.

Arden sighed in defeat when Lunna refused to say anything. Everything seemed hopeless.

Lunna’s ear drooped. She glided from Kaetlyn’s hood and rested in the palm of her hand. Reid, Xack, and Arden stayed silent, paying no attention to her. 

They all wanted their friend back.

Lunna rubbed her cheek against Kaetlyn’s fingers. She closed her eyes and tried not to think about what will happen when Cleopatra wins.

Kaetlyn’s fingers curled.

Lunna gasped and flew away. The other three noticed Kaetlyn was moving and jumped. Kaetlyn groaned and shifted to her side. Her eyes opened. She looked up and saw Arden.

“A-” Kaetlyn grunted as she sat up, “Arden?”

Arden squealed with glee and gave Kaetlyn a tight hug. Drowsy and confused, she hugged her back.

Xack and Reid’s faces lit up. They exchanged looks her their expressions became bitter, but Reid smiled at Kaetlyn waking up. Xack smirked.

Reid put in his earphones and talked to Sam.

“The Ghost Catcher worked. Is Kaetlyn doing any better?”

“She’s awake!”

“Yes! Me and Danny are heading back now.”

Reid quickly warned them about Cleopatra possessing Jayden and that everyone was split up. 

“You guys stay where you are. We’ll come to you to give Kaetlyn her miraculous,” Sam said before hanging up.

Reid returned to his friends. Kaetlyn was elated to see Lunna. Arden spoke quickly when explaining everything that’s happened so far. Xack stayed silent and watched him, his eyes unable to stop smiling.

Kaetlyn’s interrupted Arden with, “Yeah… I know most of what happened. Up until Danny took my miraculous from me.”

“Well, now Cleopatra is possessing someone from your school in America. We have no way to fight them without any powers or gadgets that your other friends had.”

Kaetlyn thought for a moment. She looked at Lunna, who already knew what she would ask.

“No! I can’t say anything!” She exclaimed, “My master will win and I’ll be punished for betraying her!”

Kaetlyn’s eyebrows creased. She lifted Lunna in her hands to be at eye level. They stared at each other for a moment before Kaetlyn said, “But if we know more about Cleopatra, we can beat her easier… Please?” When Lunna didn’t respond, she added, “You don’t have to listen to her anymore.”

The words of the magician played in the kwami’s head,  _ “Lunna; kwami of loyalty, you must learn to pick your alphas wisely.”  _

From thousands of years ago. After Cleopatra stole her, those words became pointless. But now, they gained meaning.

Kaetlyn was right. Having the chance of being Kaeltyn’s friend was much better than being ruled by Cleopatra.

So Lunna told them everything she knew. Why Cleopatra had stolen the wolf miraculous, how the magician trapped her into the void and tied her existence to it. Cleopatra couldn’t leave the void for a long time unless she possessed a living thing. The void kept her soul from peace, trapping her forever. Lunna continued to explain what she knew Cleopatra could do. What her powers were. By the end, the group wasted no time discussing.

“So we need to keep Cleopatra out of the void for long enough,” Xack stated.

“It’ll be easier if we get Cleopatra to stop possessing Jayden,” Kaetlyn said.

“So how would we do that?” Arden asked.

They all stopped to think of a solution. Reid was the first to suggest, “Can’t the Fenton Thermoses suck up ghosts whether they’re possessing someone or not?”

“But will she be able to open a portal while in the thermos?” Kaetlyn asked.

Lunna said, “I don’t think she can open one while in the Ghost Zone. The void is supposed to keep her from leaving the afterlife.”

Danny always carried a thermos on him. Sam and Tucker would most likely have one too. It could work.

Now they had to wait for Danny and Sam to return, which took a little longer since Reid had to go through the same process with them when Danny fought Kaetlyn. When they arrived. Kaetlyn got up and ran to them, so happy to see them and not having to fight them.

Danny handed her the bracelet, now with all five jewels intact and all a bright purple. 

“Lunna, would I be able to wield that hammer from before?” Kaetlyn asked as she slipped on the bracelet

“Uhm… miraculous weapons don’t usually change from what I’ve seen. There’s a chance you could get your hook swords back.”

“Well there’s only one way to find out,” Kaetlyn said, “Moon Rise!”

A bright flash of pure white light engulfed Kaetlyn. A light gray mask covered the top half of her face. A white headband pulled back her short hair and white wolf ears grew on top of her head. Her jacket and jeans were replaced with white full-body spandex. Light gray knee-high boots traveled up her legs. Gloves with claws covered her hands. At her waist grew white belt with a cape shaped like a wolf’s tail behind her.

Everyone around her stared in awe. Lune started to feel uncomfortable with all of the attention.

“If only your transformation was that sparkly, Danny,” Reid teased. Danny gave him a flat look.

Lune noticed a long silver stick on her back. She took it off and examined it. On the end was a metal block. It was a war hammer. A nicely designed one at that. She started swinging it around, getting a feel for it. It wasn’t as big as the one when she was mind-controlled, but not even the miraculouses could give her the superhuman strength to wield it. The pain was numbed before, but now her arms ached from wielding such a large weapon.

“Alright. We need to hurry,” Lune said, “Reid, do you have a thermos?”

“No.”

Lune sighed.

“I have one,” Sam said.

“Great. Can I have it?”

She gave her the thermos. Lune took it and changed languages depending on who she spoke to as she said, “If we’re all gonna fight, we need more ghost hunting tech. Danny and I can help the others keep Cleopatra busy while Reid, Sam, Arden, and Xack get some gear.”

“Since when are you this assertive?” Xack asked.

“After saving people from a bunch of Akumas and ghosts, you learn how to take control of the situation.”

Then they split up. Danny and Lune went to the battlefield while the rest left to gear up. 

When Danny and Lune arrived, they were immediately in shock. Ladybug was struggling to stand her ground. Dani and Chat were unconscious.

“Lucky Charm!” Ladybug threw in hand up. She caught something small and round, then looked around until she saw Lune and Danny.

Cleopatra, possessing Jayden, followed her gaze and scowled at the two heroes. A portal grew beneath them and swallowed them. They fell from miles above the ground and fell. Danny caught Lune and let them fall until they could clearly see the ground. Then he took flight and slowed them down.

“Drop me!” Lune shouted.

“Huh?”

“Do it already!”

And he let her go. Lune took her war hammer and readied to fight. Jayden looked up. A portal grew in front of Lune. She fell through and a second portal spat her out to roll clumsily across the ground. 

She jumped up charged at Jayden again. He turned around and grabbed the hammer to stop it from hitting him. He grinned, but confusion took over when Lune had a triumphant expression.

Before Jayden could figure it out, Danny flew at him and possessed his body. Jayden recoiled from Lune and grunted in pain. He jerked and flinched as Danny and Cleopatra fought for possession. Jayden spoke conflicting arguments as Danny and Cleopatra fought the other. 

Ladybug and Lune waited for one to win. Adrenaline kicked in as they watched until a ghost woman was forced out of Jayden. She had gold jewelry and expensive Egyptian clothing.

Ladybug cast her yoyo, but the string didn’t wrap around Cleopatra.

“She’s a ghost! Physical attacks don’t work!” Lune shouted as she aimed Sam’s Fenton Thermos at Cleopatra and fired. 

Cleopatra avoided the beam of light and zoomed for Lune. Danny left Jayden’s body and jumped in front of Lune, ice firing at Cleopatra from his hands.

“ _ Ice lasers?!  _ Since when did you get ice lasers?!” Lune exclaimed.

“Since… Overgrowth attacked Amity.”

“...Ah…”

Ladybug rushed to Jayden, asking him to come with her. When he didn’t understand, Lune shouted a paraphrased translation. Ladybug then took Jayden far away from the area.

Lune watched them, making sure they would make it okay. She screamed when she suddenly fell.

“Kaetlyn!” Danny shouted.

Lune looked up and watched as a portal closed, sealing her off from Danny. She looked around. It was dark and lifeless. It expanded infinitely. The buildings that had been cleared out by Cleopatra surrounded her. It felt like the setting for a horror movie. At least Lune was smarter than the characters in those movies.

“You are much more troublesome than I thought you’d be…” A woman’s voice echoed in the void. Lune whipped her head around, tightening her grip on her hammer.

“I gave you the miraculous as my eyes. Your allies would have noticed my portals while I was spying.”

She couldn’t tell where the voice came from. No matter where Lune ran the voice never grew closer or farther. 

“When you were useless as a spy I made you a soldier.”

Lune sprinted, hopping over piles of rock and avoiding exposed metal and broken glass. It wouldn’t end.

“Now I cannot use you.”

Cleopatra appeared in front of Lune and she skidded to a stop.

“You must perish!”

* * *

“Kaetlyn!” Danny shouted as she fell through a portal. Cleopatra laughed maniacally as she traveled through a second portal behind her. Danny flew at her, but the portal vanished before he could get to her.

Not knowing what else to do, he called Sam on his phone. 

“What is it?” She asked after picking up.

“Cleopatra took Kaetlyn somewhere. I need help.”

“We used the wormhole machine to open a portal in your parents’ lab. We’re all getting our gear then we’ll come to help you.”

“No. I need help getting Kaetlyn back. Cleopatra isn’t here and Dani and Chat Noir are unconscious. I don’t know where they could be!”

Sam didn’t talk. Instead, he heard the girl’s voice, Arden, saying something in French.

“You might be right!” Reid exclaimed in English. His voice grew louder. Sam must have given him the phone.

“Is Cleopatra still possessing Jayden?” Reid asked.

“No. She can’t possess anyone except Kaetlyn right now.”

“Then she must have retreated. She might be in the void so she can’t die. Or whatever you want to call it when a ghost… ends.”

“But how do we get to them?”

“We might be able to use the machine to open a portal. It would take some time to figure out how to do that though…”

“I think that’s our only option,” Danny paused. Dani and Chat Noir were with him, Ladybug and Jayden were elsewhere, Xack, Arden, Sam, and Reid were at the laboratory. “Where’s Tucker?”

Nothing from the other end. Then Sam said, “We haven’t seen him… We’ll… We’ll try to find him.”

“Then I’ll wait here in case anything happens.”

“Okay,” Sam said, “Be careful.” Then she hung up 

* * *

The thermos fired at Cleopatra, but it missed. Lune hopped around the rubble, firing the thermos, but every shot missed. She hid behind a crumbling wall, catching her breath. A few seconds passed and nothing happened, so she took her hammer and looked for any way to call Chat or Ladybug.

There was a circle with a curved line through it one the stick. No, it was meant to be a moon. It lit up. Lune pushed the button and on the side of the hammer, a touch screen appeared. There was a manual on everything about the wolf miraculous’ abilities and its weapon. There were contacts for every miraculous that still existed. Ladybug and Chat Noir were the first on the list. She called Ladybug but completely forgot that dialing made a noise. She jumped and tried covering the speaker, if she could find it, but to no avail.

A portal appeared beneath her. She fell through and was about to fall onto a mound of sharp rock and debris. Lune tried not to scream. Not yet.

“Midnight Howl!”

With her miraculous in perfect condition, her howl had the power to shatter the debris and blow it away from her. She rolled across the floor as she hit the ground, minimizing the damage from her fall.

Her legs burned. It hurt to stand, but the pain wasn’t unbearable, luckily.

Cleopatra growled in frustration. From the air, she charged at Lune in the straight line. Lune realized the opportunity and took out the thermos. She fired once, Cleopatra avoided it. She fired again, another miss.

Lune was about to fire a third time, but Cleopatra was too fast and phased into Lune. The force threw Lune back. Before she could hit the ground, there was a flash of electricity. It heated her back and stunned her whole body. The light stung her eyes, so she closed them.

Hitting the floor, it felt different. It was tangible. She couldn’t tell if the light in her eyes was from the electricity or not. All she knew was that she could hear footsteps coming closer. And the sound of her miraculouses beeping.

“Kaetlyn!” A boy’s voice called, he sounded to be right in front of her when he asked, “Are you okay? What about Cleopatra?”

Lune’s hands tightened around his throat. She looked up at him; Reid. He looked back at her. Her eyes weren’t the beautiful hazel, but a cold and dark brown.

Cleopatra, as Lune, threw Reid to the side. He yelled as he fell and skidded across the ground.

She looked back at everyone else. Danny, Ladybug, Sam, Tucker, Arden, Xack, even Dani and Chat Noir. They all had some sort of ghost hunting weapon in hand.

“It’s Cleopatra!” Reid shouted, “She’s possessing Lune!”

A net fired at Lune. She jumped out of the way. Arden wore a large metal suit, swinging a punch. Lune dodged, but couldn’t avoid the kick that threw her backward. Tucker fired a bazooka, green beams leaving burn marks on the ground where Lune once way.

She leaped in a clear area, but more attacks kept coming. With Lune’s hands glowing, portals appeared around her enemies. But they expected that. Some stopped before felling through while Dani and Danny lifted those who were about to.

Lune scowled. Her miraculous started beeping. The second jewel stopped glowing. She needed to end them quickly.

She took her hammer and used it in battle, damaging Arden’s armor and knocking weapons out of others’ hands. She lunged forwards and hit Xack, sending him to the ground. He fired a large gun of foam at her. Some got on her arm and immediately began to feel weak. 

She jumped high into the air, throwing her hammer to the ground with insane force. The impact from its landing created wind strong enough to shake the earth and blow everyone back. The ground cracked and a large dent was left around the hammer.

Her enemies coughed and struggled to stand up. They were all weakened and in pain.

Lune approached her hammer. The third jewel beeped as she reached her hand out to take back the weapon. Once her fingers touched the stick, she shrieked and kneeled to the ground.

She jerked and flinched, hugging her stomach. Her eyes flashed between hazel and brown.

“You’re not- going to win,” Cleopatra grunted. Her teeth clenched. She backed away from the hammer, using all her strength to stay standing up.

Her eyes flashed hazel as she said, “Yes!  _ I will!” _

She kneeled. Brown eyes tried standing up, hazel eyes scanned the area. Her friends were all hurt. They were all too far away to help.

Hazel eyes locked onto a Fenton thermos. The one they dropped when being possessed.

“No!” Brown eyes yelled.

She stood up, statically walking to the thermos. Hazel and brown flashed across her eyes as she reached out for it.

The fourth jewel beeped.

She collapsed, but both sides still fought for control. Hazel used everything to crawl towards the thermos. If Cleopatra ever left her body, she would lose.

She yelled in agony. The thermos was only a few inches away. It hurt. It burned. It was exhausting. But the hazel eyes grabbed the Fenton Thermos with one hand. The other clutched onto her wrist to keep the thermos away.

They struggled. They fought against one another. Slowly, Kaetlyn managed to point the thermos at her stomach.

“You can’t do that!” Cleopatra shouted from inside Lune’s body. Desperation spilled out of her voice.

Kaetlyn’s finger hovered over the button that activated the thermos. It hurt so much, but she was so close. The slightest movement in her finger and they would win.

She breathed heavily. She couldn’t fight any longer.

“Watch me.”

Kaetlyn pressed the button and bright light fired into her stomach. Cleopatra’s voice screamed as she was pulled out of Lune’s body and sucked into the Fenton thermos. As soon as she was inside, Lune popped the lid back on and dropped the thermos.

She took deep breaths. A smile spread across her face. She laughed weakly at her victory and lied on her back.

The fifth jewel beeped frantically. Lune let it. Everyone around her already knew her secret. Once the fifth jewel stopped beeping, Lunna flew out of the miraculous and Kaetlyn was left where Lune once was.

“You did it!” Lunna shouted, hugging Kaetlyn’s wrist tightly, “You did it! You did it! You did it! You did it!”

Kaetlyn chuckled. She sat up and looked at Lunna, who suddenly had a sullen expression.

“What’s wrong?”

Lunna looked up at Kaetlyn, tears in her eyes, “People know your identity. You can’t be Lune anymore.”

Kaetlyn’s eyes widened. Lunna was right.

* * *

“I’m so sorry I couldn’t keep the wolf miraculous safe,” Kaetlyn apologized to Master Fu, bowing to him.

They were in his apartment. Lunna hovered above her shoulder. Master Fu’s turtle kwami, Wayzz, hovered near him.

The old man waved her apology away, “I am only glad that it won’t end up in the wrong hands anymore.”

Kaetlyn sighed and sta up, an expression of guilt and sadness on her face. She stood up from the floor. Lunna hugged Kaetlyn’s chest on her shirt collar. Kaetlyn lightly hugged back. 

“I’ll leave now. I need to get ready for school again in America,” Kaetlyn said. She walked toward the door, only stopping to say a final goodbye to Lunna. With her identity being revealed, she couldn’t be a superhero anymore. 

Kaetlyn closed the door. Ladybug waited there. She took her out of the building and to her friends where they waited for her. Arden ran over to give Kaetlyn a big hug as soon as Ladybug let her down. Kaetlyn smiled, realizing how much she missed Arden’s hugs after moving back to Amity. 

Xack approached Kaetlyn. Both felt awkward after realizing the conversations they had as Lune and Aquila. 

“Uhm… Goodbye?” Xack said

“Yeah yeah,” Kaetlyn nervously chuckled, “Goodbye.”

Arden groaned, “No…!” She put her hand on Xack’s shoulder, “Kaetlyn, Xack bought you a pretty necklace!”

Xack hissed at her to stop talking, but she continued, “He lost it and felt really bad. He cares about you! And you’re his friend!”

Kaetlyn felt her face warm up. He bought her a necklace?

“Oh,” She checked her pockets, “Did you lose it while in America?”

“Eh… M-maybe.”

Kaetlyn pulled out a necklace with a silver chain and small crystal.

Xack’s eyes dilated. He mumbled softer with each word, “Y-yeah… I w.. wanted to give that to… you.” 

“Then… I’ll wear it.” She said as she put the chain around her neck.

Xack hid his face, but not good enough to hide how red it was. Arden giggled, proud of what she’d done.

“I’ll see you guys later then,” Kaetlyn said. She waved goodbye as a portal opened behind her. One that led into an old garage. Arden waved back. Xack’s gaze didn’t leave her.

Kaetlyn walked through the portal and entered Amity Park. Reid closed the portal. Tucker, Sam, and Danny waited. Dani already said her goodbyes to everyone before traveling again. She mentioned how she wanted to learn French.

Kaetlyn couldn’t take her eyes off of the sparkling crystal from her necklace. She couldn’t stop smiling.

“So… What should we do for the rest of the day?” Danny asked.

“Nasty Burger!” Tucker suggested.

“I feel like beating you guys at a video game,” Sam said.

“I’ll go home. We can do something big tomorrow,” Kaetlyn said as she lifted the garage door.

“You sure?” Sam asked.

“Yep,” Kaetlyn walked out of the garage. She smiled at Reid before walking home.

She announced her arrival as she entered the house. Her parents welcomed her back. She went up the stairs and entered her room. Her parents never knew about her alter ego. They never would. All they would know was that Lune wouldn’t be seen in either America or Paris any time soon. Or whatever the news gave them.

Looking around, Kaetlyn’s room felt emptier. No jerky wrappers were piling up on the bed. No kwami sleeping on a small pillow on the shelf of the bed. That setup would need to be cleaned up and put away.

Kaetlyn climbed on her bed and reached for the shelf. She reached to take the pillow, but noticed something resting on it. A white bracelet. It didn’t have five purple jewels on it, but it had a pattern engraved on it in purple. It created a beautiful image of a forest with a full moon in the sky. 

Kaetlyn smiled. She held the bracelet to her chest for a moment before putting it on. Then she went back to cleaning up after Lunna.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for sticking around until the end! I understand I’m no professional writer and not everything was perfect, so I greatly appreciate you guys reading and hope you’ve enjoyed my story. I also work on two Fairy Tail fanfics with my friend. Both are posted on her account “Kittenish or Devilish” I plan to write two more fanfics, so keep an eye out for those on my profile.
> 
> YOU GUYS MEAN A LOT! THANK YOU FOR MAKING IT THIS FAR!


	16. Author's Note

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (This is me talking to you as I would if we were in person. This isn’t my writing voice.)

Hello, hello. I’m Syaleo: The author of NLNAE. I’ve posted NLNAE on Ao3 and Fanfiction.net. So you Ao3 readers will know NLNAE has been split into three parts; “New Life, New Alter Ego” “Old Life, Same Alter Ego” and “My Life, No Alter Ego” But I’ll be referring to it as NLNAE.

I’ve been writing for... going on four years by the time this is posted. And I started NLNAE just over 2 years. And it was… something…… jeez.

I don’t expect y’all to read all of this, but I suggest you do if you’re interested in writing as I’ll be admitting what I’ve found myself doing wrong when writing NLNAE and what I learned from it. So that means a few writing tips! Though I’m no professional! And I’m sure some of you know this story was far from perfect.

I’ll go into more detail later but BASICALLY:

  * Know what you’re writing about (genres, themes, messages, etc.) and stick to it.
  * Plan ahead and know at least the important parts to your story and the characters involved.
  * Make sure everything is consistent! Write notes or reminders if you have to.
  * Make sure everything in the story makes sense and doesn’t open any plot holes.
  * Actually *clap* enjoy *clap* your work!!! Love your story and your characters!!! Otherwise you’ll be writing it just to get it done and _no one’s_ happy!



I’m sure I missed something but these are the problems that  _ I  _ noticed in my writing. 

And this isn’t something I feel I did bad at but also learn how to take criticism. If someone doesn’t like your story or doesn’t find it interesting, ask why and see if you can fix any mistakes you’ve made. Also keep in mind you can’t please everyone because everyone has different interests and dislikes. And if they say “Your writing is bad.” “I just don’t like this character.” Or something like that without any real reason, it’s not criticism. Just ignore them because they aren’t going to help you in any way.

_ Now  _ into further depth of those mistakes I mentioned…

**Know what you’re writing about and stick to it.**

I originally wrote NLNAE to be just a fun story about a girl that could go on the same adventures as Ladybug, Chat Noir, and Danny and his friends. It wasn’t supposed to have a lot of lore. Just something fun to enjoy.

My problem was I felt there needed to be a reason Kaetlyn got her miraculous. Like there needed to be someone behind it all since there was no wolf miraculous known about in the actual show. This led to poorly planned plot and a whooooooooole lot of plot holes. 

If I had stuck to “Fun action-packed adventures” and not changed it to “Lore and big boss villain ultra-super evil final battle!” I feel I would have done much better at writing NLNAE.

Don’t change your genre. Don’t change your goal with your story. If you have a message you want to deliver in your story, don’t change it! You can’t flip flop or decide to change everything in the middle of the story.

**Plan ahead and know at least the important parts to your story and the characters involved**

I…. Had absolutely no plan for NLNAE. I had just decided that I would write along with whatever episode would come out on Miraculous Ladybug. And add in some original ideas if I wanted.

This nonexistent planning on my part led to things being made up on the spot and barely anything was thought through. You seriously have no idea how bad I was with this.

I created Reid, Xack, Arden, And Jayden on the spot. I would be writing a chapter without much clue as to what the exact events that would happen would be. As I went to the next chapter, I thought “Hey! What if I added another OC?” and thus an OC was born. I had no plans for what I would do with them and had no idea what their personality was, what their interests would be. I didn’t even fully plan out Kaetlyn. One minute she likes reading and the next she’s obsessed with movies.

Make sure to properly plan out your story and its characters. Writing is a long process and rewriting is common. Know what you’re writing about, know the main characters and what drives them. Add some little details like habits or favorite foods if you want. No, you won’t come up with everything at once, but t’s important to know enough about your characters that you could talk about them to another person as if they’re your friend.

“Oh, have you met Kaetlyn? She doesn’t like talking to people too much but once you get to know her she’s really nice.” Kinda like that. I’m personally just really bad at describing people so it’s challenging for me. Gonna take some learning on my part.

And for planning the actual story itself I would say to make sure you know the biggest parts of your story. Like another character reveal or when the villain gets the upper hand. Write out what the characters are capable of doing and what the villain’s goal is. And what their plan to reach that goal is. Same goes for the heroes.

**Make sure everything is consistent! Write notes or reminders if you have to**

I completely forgot details that I’ve written throughout the story. And it didn’t help that I never had any drafts or scripts to go by. A character would say something in one chapter and then two chapters later they completely contradict what they had just said. For no reason at all!

About halfway through I realized this mistake. And I started going back in my writing and seeing so many errors. I really wanted to go back and make edits but it was too much to be fixed easily. People have already read it and know I made those mistakes. 

From then I tried actually making notes to go back on, but everything was already so confusing that they didn’t help much…. *sigh*

**Make sure everything in the story makes sense and doesn’t open any plot holes**

Unless you’re intentionally writing something that’s supposed to not make sense (I can only see this working in some type of comedy but I don’t know what you got planned) The audience needs to be able to actually understand what’s going on. If you set rules for your world, don’t break them. Yes, there are sometimes exceptions to these rules but there has to be a reason for this exception. 

Uhhh….. Let’s use Avatar the Last Airbender (I mean a lot of people oughta know that show) The rule is: You can only bend one element and any sub-elements that relate to your main one. Earth benders bend metal, Water benders bend blood, etc. The exception is: The Avatar can bend all four elements, and thus be able to bend every sub-element.

There’s rules, and there’s some exceptions. But those exceptions can’t be made whenever you want. It’s… Tricky for me to explain.

I don’t think I did enough research about Miraculous Ladybug and Danny Phantom… lore. (I think that’s the right word to use here) I’ve broken some worldbuilding related rules somewhere along the story. 

**Actually enjoy your work!!! Love your story and your characters!!!**

This one is SOOOOOO important! 

LISTEN UP!!! If you’re not enjoying your work, it’ll just be a huge pain. You won’t be motivated, it’ll take forever to finish, you’ll be putting it off, the quality of your work will suffer. It’s not good for anyone. 

Now, if your job tells you you gotta make something you don’t want to…. I can’t really help you since you’re being paid to do that kinda work. I’m no paid author so… sorry. Wish I could be useful. :/

Once I started realizing how bad NLNAE was, I hated it. I wished I could have rebooted it and started over with a better plan and workflow, but I was too far into the story and at that point I just wanted to finish it and never look back.

Seriously. It was painful to work on NLNAE. I had to force myself to write it. And I know it’s just a fanfic and I gain no benefit from working on it, but people seemed to be enjoying it? To some extent? People read the chapters I wrote and commented on a few, so I didn’t want to be the person that suddenly stopped updating fanfics and leave readers upset. I hate it when that happens to me so I didn’t want to be the cause of it.

If anything I’m just glad it’s over now. Rebooting NLNAE with a better story and more developed characters sounds nice, but I have other stuff I want to do. NLNAE, despite being…. horrible, in my opinion, I think it really helped me learn a lot about writing. It’s basically a “what not to do” I think.

If you liked or enjoyed reading NLNAE, kudos to you! Thank you for reading it! I won’t judge you so don’t let me bashing on my story change how you feel about it. I really appreciate that you’ve made it this far.

Another thing that don’t hurt to mention is to read over your work for any spelling errors. English is my native language and I always find “your” and “you’re” mistakes. And “they’re, their, there.” I’ve been using Grammarly to correct any spelling or grammar errors. But I don’t pay for premium so I don’t always get everything. Though you can always read through your writing if you don’t want the fancy stuff. Any of you know programs to help with these kinds of mistakes? I’m open to any suggestions.

Oh and if you’re writing stuff like fanfiction or posting on something that let’s people comment and give feedback, read what the audience has to say. Interact with them. This was my first story on Fanfiction.net so I wasn’t sure how to do everything. (Not many people comment on Ao3) For my next story, I’ll definitely be replying to comments. Unless they the mean people who’re there to ruin your day. I don’t talk to those people. They rude…

Oh, oh! And I’m open to any criticism you guys have for me. Maybe you didn’t like something or were confused at some point. Maybe I didn’t notice something else wrong with the story. I want to get better at my writing so if you have anything, tell me!

And with that...

THANK YOUUUUUU!!!!! YOU GUYS MEAN A LOT! YOU HAVE NO IDEA HOW MUCH IT MEANS TO ME THAT YOU MADE IT TO THE END OMGGGGG

(Thank you!)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ……?
> 
> Oh, if you’re still here then… check out some of my other stories??? Not really mine. I write two “Fairy Tail” fanfictions with my friend, which both are posted on her account, “Kitten_Kuti”
> 
> And if you like “Soul Eater” I’m currently working on a fanfiction for that. It’s not being posted right now though. But if you subscribe to my account you can get a notification on when I do post it. (I don't know if that's how it works on Ao3... but- do keep out for my story if you're interested!) Trust me, after spending a couple years developing it it’ll turn out much better than NLNAE. I’d say it’s a little darker. A little crazier. But it’s Soul Eater, what’d you expect?
> 
> It’ll be titled “Not So Kishin” (NSK) and involves original characters. It takes place in 1997, which is 7 years before the show starts. The manga was made in 2004 so I used that timeline since it’s the original work. I know Soul Eater is old and doesn’t have as much hype as other shows anymore, but I loved NSK too much to give it up. And as long as I have at least one reader enjoying my work, I’ll keep writing.


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